PERCY JACKSON AND THE SEVEN SEIZED
by TushiSushi
Summary: This is the beginning of the story of a quest Percy goes on when everyone important in Percy's life disappears from Camp. The war god, Ares has thrown down the gauntlet and Percy, Thalia, Nico, and Clarisse must go on a quest to defeat him. The gods must go on their own quest to save the demigods and the horrible role that Ares played in the Gaean War come to light.
1. Plummet to Paradise in Paul's Prius

My first chapter for my first fanfiction. All rights go to my favorite author Rick Riordan. YOU'RE AMAZING! Tell me how it is people!

CHAPTER ONE

Today was a lovely day. I usually never say those five words because my life is screwed up. One day I'm fighting demon donkeys that shoot fire out of their behinds and the next I'm trying to avoid a monster who wants my head on their wall. Stupid things…it's these stupid things that ruin my day. Today felt weird because so far nothing had gone wrong…except Paul and his freakin' Prius.

Paul wouldn't let me drive his Prius to camp. He was still "recovering" from what he called the "incident". My pegasus, Blackjack had made two big dents on its hood with his hooves. Oh, Blackjack. Anyway, this was what, two years ago? Paul had said it was okay that it had happened because it hadn't been my fault but he still said that I couldn't drive. I couldn't sit shotgun either because _both _my mom and Paul were dropping me off at camp.

Camp was my home. I had started at Camp-Half Blood when I was 12. Now I'm 18. I've trained to fight monsters there and made and made many friends. I had discovered that I had a half-brother, Tyson the Cyclopes. Last time I had seen him he was taller, bigger, and definitely stronger than I was. But compared to other Cyclopes, he was pretty small. I had also found out my best friend, Grover, who was a satyr. But most importantly, Camp-Half Blood was where I had found my girlfriend, Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena. I couldn't wait to step foot inside the camp borders. I could see Half-Blood Hill approaching. I smiled. My mom and Paul were telling jokes and laughing. It was the perfect day. That thought was probably what jinxed everything. I was waiting to jump out as soon as Paul stopped the car and meet up with Annabeth. We passed in front of the hill and…we didn't stop. I frowned.

"Paul. Camp was back there. Why didn't you make the turn?" I asked.

"That's weird," he frowned too and my mom looked concerned, "I pressed the brakes but the car didn't stop." He lifted his foot of the accelerator. Nothing changed. "Sally what's–"

My mom looked back at me and asked, "Percy, are you doing something?" I shook my head. What was going on? I wanted to go to camp. Paul tried turning the steering wheel.

"Sally, I can't control the freaking car!" He said. Then a lot happened extremely fast. We were going straight over a bridge, Half-Blood Hill _way_ behind us, and suddenly the car turned right. The Prius flew straight off the bridge and shot directly towards the water below. My eyes widened. "Sally!" Paul yelled.

"Mom!" I screamed.

'Percy! Do something!" my mom screamed. We all shrieked and screamed as we plummeted towards the water. Right before we crashed against the water, I pulled myself forward and put my hands on both of their shoulder. I closed my eyes shut and braced myself for impact. I prayed to my dad. _Poseidon…please, save us…please! _Then we crashed against the water and kept rocketing towards the bottom of the lake.

I got jerked back into my seat when the car crashed with the water. I lost my grip on my mom and Paul's shoulder. I knew that the car wouldn't fill with water unless there was a leak or something, so I didn't have to worry about them breathing underwater. But I knew that sooner or later that water would pour in because of the pressure. And, just as I thought, the water started pouring in, coming through the now cracked windows and was about to fill the entire car. I could breathe fine but I wasn't sure about my parents. Then suddenly all of our seatbelts unbuckled themselves and the side doors opened. We were all pulled out of the car by some current and we rocketed towards the bottom of the floor of the lake.

"Mom! Paul! Are you two alright?!"

"We're fine Percy!"

I was shocked. I was expecting a nod or a shake of the head. "Mom? You can talk and breathe?"

She looked puzzled. We all looked towards the bottom of the lake and could see lights underneath us. We were slowing down too."

"Yes, Percy, I'm fine. But what the heck is going on?"

Paul spoke up. "This is impossible! First of all, Sally and I shouldn't be able to breathe… not that I'm complaining… and second of all…this lake isn't this deep! I feel like we've been shooting towards the bottom for quite a while now!" he exclaimed over the loud noise the rushing water made.

"I did pray to my dad… maybe he's helping us!"

We finally drew to a stop and landed on the sand. There were coral reefs and tropical fishes all around us. My mom touched a passing fish that reminded me of Nemo… what were they called? Clownfish? Paul just kept turning around in circles, his jaw hanging. In the distance I could see palaces and beautiful structures with fish. It was very bright and was the most amazing place I had ever seen, and I think we need to keep in mind that I've been to Olympus. It looked like paradise. I lifted my feet and slowly swam a little closer to the light. My parents were still trying to regain control of their legs.

The utopia in front of me looked vaguely familiar. I used my nautical senses to try and figure out where were exactly. We were definitely not anywhere close to Camp Half-Blood. Then I realized where we were and it brought back a lot of bad memories. This was where I had lost Beckendorf. Charles Beckendorf. He had helped me destroy the _Princess Andromeda _after the Blackjack incident with the Prius. Kronos had Beckendorf and he didn't survive the explosion.

I tried not to relive those memories. If I was where I thought I was, then my day was about to get a whole lot better.

"Percy, where are we?" asked my mom with a frantic tone.

"It's alright mom. I know where we are," I swam over to her to reassure her, "but last time I had been here, the place was in ruins because he was battling Oceanus."

"Oh, of course," Paul said in a sarcastic way, "silly me. But who are we talking about exactly?"

Then my mom noticed something big coming towards us. She rushed me over to her. It looked like a big black blob speeding towards us. I focused my eyes so I could see clearer and farther in the water. It was an ornate chariot being pulled by four magnificent ebony-colored horses. In the chariot was a stern woman in a beautiful aquamarine dress babbling to someone next to her. That person was my father in Ancient Greek armor and his trident in the air. I had a similar one back at my cabin at Camp Half-Blood but I never used it because it was too heavy and was not even close to being cool as his. The chariot pulled up next to us with an abrupt stop and the horses neighed and snorted loudly. I quickly swam to the horses to touch them because, well, they were awesome. Paul yelped and slowly walked back and my mom blushed when she saw my dad in the chariot.

"Ah, it's great to see that everyone is still in one piece" said Poseidon.

"Eh, I would've been fine either way" said the woman with the unhappy face.

I turned around to Paul and said very proudly, "Paul, this is my father Poseidon. You've met before," then I turned to my mother and said very awkwardly, "uh, mom, this here, uh, is my step-mother, I guess, Amphitrite."

Then there was a very long, awkward silence.


	2. EXTREMELY AWKWARD is an Understatement

The day just became a whole lot exciting. I swam over to Poseidon and gave him a really long bear hug. Yeah, I hugged my dad. People do that if they haven't seen their dad in a while. I loved the man...I meant I loved the _god. _He was pretty epic. Poseidon was pretty surprised but he hugged me back. Amphitrite rolled her eyes and then walked over to my mom.

"You must be Sally," Amphitrite said as shook my mom's hand with a hard grasp, "not at all please to meet you."

My mom gave her back a fake smile and squeezed her hand even harder, "Oh, the feeling is mutual."

Paul, Poseidon and I all glanced at each other while my mom and step-mother started raising their tones and then slightly shoving each other. Poseidon and Paul intervened when the hair grabbing started. I was laughing inside because I thought it was hilarious.

"Anyway, Amphitrite and I are very glad to see you Percy, and your parents," said Poseidon. He turned around and faced his palace. "TRITON! Come over here please!"

I could see a bluish tinted merman approaching us. I had met Triton before. He was very surfer dude-ish.

"Yo Perce! Nice to see you again, dude!" he said as he swam up to us.

Amphitrite remembered how I had hugged Poseidon and turned to look at her son with a cheery face. "Triton, son, give me a hug."

"Um, why?"

"Just, give me a hug"

"Mom, I'm not gonna-"

"Just give me one-"

"I don't wanna-"

"ENOUGH! Triton, take Mr. Blofis and dear Sally and take them on a tour of the royal palace. I need to speak with Percy alone" interrupted Poseidon with an annoyed tone.

"Got it dad" Triton said. He swam up to Paul and looked confused. He turned to Poseidon and asked "Mr. Blowfish?"

Poseidon chuckled. "Ha, no. It's Blofis. Believe me, Percy and I have made the same mistake before."

Paul's face turned red. I said bye to mom and Paul as Triton and Amphitrite loaded them into the chariot and sped off towards the palace.

My dad turned to me with a smile. "How are you doing Percy?"

"I'm fine dad. We were just heading to camp when the car committed suicide. How did you do that? I didn't know that you could control cars."

Poseidon looked towards the car and my water bottle shot out and floated next him. "I can't control cars but I can control water."

I was pretty surprised. "Whoa. You could control Paul's Prius because of a water bottle? Glad to see that you're recovering so well."

"Yes, I'm doing fine. Even after Neptune's annoying voice went away from my head, I had splitting headaches for weeks," he said as we walked along the coral and fish, "I'm very proud of you, Percy. Not many can say that they have faced Gaea and lived…actually no one can."

I felt a warm feeling in my body. It made me feel really good that my dad was proud of me. "Thanks dad."

We swirled around because we heard someone coming. It turned out to be a guard. "My lord. Someone by the name of Annabeth Chase is Iris Messaging for Percy. Should I let it through?"

I turned to my dad. "Ooh, I have to get that. If I don't, she'll never let me hear the end of it."

My dad's eyebrow arched. "Annabeth, the Athena girl. I have nothing against Athena but I guess she took it badly when she saw me and Medusa in her temple. But then you cut her head off so she shouldn't be mad anymore, right?"

"Umm, yeah. I have to go dad. Thanks for inviting me…or forcing me down here in a car. It was really awesome to see you again."

"You're welcome anytime here Percy. I want you to have this" he took a necklace off of his neck and handed it to me. "It will help you get back here from where ever you are. Where there is water, there is a way. Remember that."

Again I was getting a cryptic message from my father, but I was still happy.

"One more thing Percy, you and Annabeth aren't…you know…" he smacked his hands together really loud.

My entire body turned as red as a tomato. I replied very awkwardly, "No…dad, gods, no…you would know…because you're a….god. I'm gonna go know. Bye."

I tried to pretend like the conversation never happened…at least the last part. I swam towards the palace to see Annabeth.

The palace was very well decorated and was massive. I eventually found my way up to the fountain in the center of the palace. Annabeth's face was projected on the fountain. She smiled and I smiled back.

"I'm coming back" I said to her.

Ω

Hey people! So this is my second chapter. I have a mind-blowing plot coming soon that will make you smack your heads and explain a lot of stuff. Tell me what you think. In the next chapter, you will see what transpired in Camp-Half Blood while Percy was down under. You will also see how the bad stuff to happen in Camp Half-Blood all begins. His friends will disappear and he will have to make a decision that will either save their lives, or kill them all.

ONCE AGAIN, ALL RIGHTS TO THE MASTER AUTHOR, RICK RIORDAN!


	3. All Hades Breaks Loose

Hi! Third Chapter, completely awesome. It's very long. ALL RIGHTS TO RICK RIORDAN!

_Around the same time that Paul's car flies off of the bridge. Annabeth's Point of View._

I was really bummed out. I loved Camp Half-Blood but Gaea had caused to much destruction at home. I had seen to many of my fellow campers perish. It scarred me. Suddenly all of the camp fires and singing that I had loved didn't matter much to me anymore. Even Capture the Flag wasn't the same. And now, my idiot boyfriend is late.

I was perched next to Thalia's Pine on Half-Blood Hill, waiting for Percy to drive up. The Golden Fleece shimmered a waterfall of golden light beside me and the dragon protecting it was sleeping like a corpse. Many thoughts were swirling around my massive brain. After the War, Percy, the others and I helped return camp to its former glory. I was in charge of writing all of the condolence letters to the mortal parents of all the half-bloods. It was extremely depressing. Later on, Percy went back home to his mom and stepfather. I stayed. I Iris-Messaged Percy a lot. A LOT. He said that he would be coming back today. I had never been this excited for a while.

I focused in on a car cutting through the valley. It was a Prius and was heading towards the hill. I knew that it was Paul's automatically because he had never gotten the time to fix the dents on the hood. I got up and started heading towards the gates when I thought that the car would slow down. I could see Percy's face and I wanted to yell his name, but something seemed wrong. He looked confused and the car didn't stop. I scrunched up my eyebrows and frowned. I kept my eyes on the car and I could see that Mrs. Jackson was panicking. They were crossing the bridge when my worst nightmare happened…They all sped off the bridge. I could hear them all screaming.

"NO! Oh my gods!" I yelped with terror. I was hallucinating. I was becoming too depressed. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. When I opened my eyes, there was no sign of anyone in the lake. I breathed a sigh of relief. I _was _hallucinating. If that was really Percy in the car, he would've swam up already.

I turned away from Thalia's Pine and headed back towards the cabins. I passed some of the minor gods' cabins and crossed over to the goddesses' side of the cabins. I could see Miranda Gardiner tending the crops in the garden at the Demeter Cabin. Clarisse was sharpening her lance and some campers were training outside of the Ares Cabin. Frank was there too, challenging his fellow siblings with whatever gifts Mars gave him. Zeus's Cabin was probably the most occupied I had ever seen it because Jason was staying here along with Thalia. Hera's Cabin was empty as always. I made sure not to walk anywhere close to there. You never know when Hera decides to beam down a pile of cow poop for me to step in. Will Solace and the Apollo crowd very practicing their archery skills along with the few Hunters of Artemis that came down with Thalia. Malcolm was strategizing for the next Capture the Flag in my cabin. Piper and the Aphrodite girls were laughing and playing volleyball. Hazel and Nico were sitting on the steps to of the Hades Cabin. The Argo II was stationed behind the Hephaestus Cabin with Leo tampering with it and Festus clanking happily. Travis and Connor were pranking some little kids over at Hermes Cabin and Mr. D was having a chat with his son at his own cabin. Overall, it was an incredibly cheery day.

I was slowly walking back to my cabin when Piper saw me.

"Annabeth! Wait up!" Piper said as she ran over to me in her bright red bikini. "Is what I'm wearing too Aphrodite-ish? No, right?"

I smiled a little. "No, you look fine. You know that you _can _look like a girl sometimes Piper."

"Thanks…whoa, wait a minute…there's something really wrong with you. What happened?"

I hesitated a bit and then decided that I needed to share with someone. "You don't think that I'm delusional, do you? I mean, I think I just saw Percy's car drive off a bridge. And then a few seconds later, the water was completely still like nothing had happened."

She was surprised. "You? No way. You have the best brain that I've ever seen. Nothing's wrong with you. You just miss Percy, that's all," she put her hand on my shoulder, "he's coming back Annabeth."

"Thanks. You know what? I'm going to go Iris-Message him."

"Good idea. Alright see you at lunch" Piper said as she ran back over to her volleyball game.

I nodded and then looked at Poseidon's Cabin. Tyson was down at the armory so the cabin was empty. Then I had an idea. I crossed over the large courtyard over to Poseidon's Cabin. I looked around to check if no one was looking and then bolted in. Campers weren't allowed to go to each other's cabins unless we were doing a sanitation check. I knew that Percy had a fountain with a ton of drachmas at the bottom in the corner of his cabin. I walked over to it and reached down to pick up a drachma out of the water. I took and said a prayer out loud.

"O, Iris, Goddess of the Rainbow, accept my offering. Show me my Seaweed Brain." My eyes widened as soon as I realized that I accidentally said what I said. The mist that the fountain created changed and a little later I heard an unfamiliar voice.

"You have reached the Royal Palace of Lord Poseidon. To whom am I speaking with?"

I was really shocked. I wasn't sure what to say. "Um, my name is Annabeth Chase…Poseidon? Really? I call Percy and I his father picks up."

The voice came back nonchalantly, "Are you one of his wives, 'cause he really ain't got time for this."

"NO," I said abruptly, "No, Poseidon doesn't have any other wives anyway. I need to speak to his son…please…now."

The voice sighed. "Uggh…please hold." There was some intriguingly soothing music on the line. This had never happened on an Iris-Message before. I waited for a few minutes and tapped my feet patiently. Then the mist rippled and I smiled. Percy's face smiled back at me.

"I'm coming back" Percy said to me.

"Oh…my…gods! That is so amazing" I said.

"Wow, Annabeth. Haven't seen you this excited about me in forever," he said back in a joking voice.

"Haha, no. I mean I am very excited to see you again. But…ARE YOU IN POSEIDON'S PALACE!?"

"Uh, yeah," he said as he stepped away from the mist. I could see the entire room now. "Dad pulled us off a bridge and we ended up here. It's a really long story-"

"No! It's not! This means that I'm not a crazy delusional person! I saw your car drop off the bridge and I freaked. The architecture down there is beautiful."

"Yup, it's breathtaking. Wait…are you in my cabin?"

My cheeks reddened. "Yeah, Tyson wasn't in here so I thought I could sneak in and IM you. Sorry."

"No, it's fine. Stay there I'll be there in a bit" Percy said.

I nodded and the mist rippled again and vanished. I sighed but I was happier than before. I went over t Percy's bed and saw his Minotaur horn from six years ago on the night stand. I sat down on the bed. Then I plopped down and put my face into his pillow and closed my eyes. That was my first mistake.

I felt a presence that I had not felt in a very long time. My eyes widened and I was about to run when one giant hand grabbed me by the neck and another covered my mouth. I struggled to get free and kicked my attacker in the knee. When I kicked him it felt like I had kicked a rock, but he releases for a moment. I limped towards the door but I knew I wouldn't make it. My eye caught Piper and I screamed.

"PIPER! RUN AND TELL MR.D AND CHIRON! IT'S AR-" I didn't get to finish. He grabbed me again and I looked down to confirm what I was dreading. There was a scar on my attackers heel. The same place were Percy had impaled my least favorite Olympian after Hera. I closed my eyes and then I was gone. Annabeth Chase had disappeared from Camp Half-Blood.

Ω

_Piper's Point of View_

When I heard Annabeth scream for help, I dropped the volleyball and ran as fast as I could to Percy's cabin. I was scared. Annabeth never screamed like that. She was in real danger. I passed the Hades Cabin along the way and yelled at Hazel and Nico.

"Hazel! Tell Nico to get Chiron and Mr. D. Annabeth is in trouble!"

I reached the cabin and pulled open the doors. When I went in, everything looked normal. The beds were made and the furniture was untouched. Annabeth was nowhere to be seen. I felt a very strong presence though.

"Who's there? Come out, come out where ever you are…" I said as I tiptoed around. Then a heavy voice behind me said something and I almost jumped out of my skin.

"Stupid girl. My girlfriend is the master of charmspeak. It won't work on me."

I knew who it was. But before I could pull out my dagger, he knocked me out with a hard blow to the neck and I dissipated into a puff of smoke.

Ω

_Hazel's Point of View_

"Piper, you in here?" I asked aloud. I had seen her come in here. I was confused but Nico was on his way to the Big House.

"Piper? Annabeth? Where are you?" Something was definitely wrong. I went for the door but it shut in front of me. "AGH!"

"Hello Hazel," said a creepy voice behind me.

"AGH!" I screeched again. There was a man in front of me wearing an orange tunic and war armor. He had a sword in his hand.

"Oh…Lord Mars! I'm sorry, you startled me. What are you doing at Camp Half-Blood?"

"I'd like to see my son" he replied back in a raspy voice."

"HAZEL!" Frank burst through the door. He was panting and he looked like he was scared. "I heard you scream! Are you alright?"

"I'm fine Frank. Look, it's your father." I gestured towards Lord Mars.

He looked puzzled and then I had a realization. I focused my energy onto the ground below us and urged it to move to my command.

"URRGGH!" I pulled the rock and dirt out of the earth with a tug in my gut and willed it to crush the impostor. Dust and sand whirled around us. I was using up all of the energy I head. When there was a steady flow of dirt crushing him I turned my head around to Frank. He seemed amazed. "That's not your father, is he?"

"Nope. That's his less understanding counterpart" Frank said as he morphed in front of my eyes. Frank grew in size, so big that he burst through the top of the cabin. His skin became a green reptilian color and he sprouted scaly wings. In a matter of seconds he was a fully fledged dragon. I would've been amazed if I hadn't seen him do it before but it still made me awestruck. Frank opened his huge jaws and like a flamethrower, fire shot out of his mouth. After a few more minutes, all of my power was completely drained and all of the rock around me fell. Frank shrank and both of our jaws dropped.

"What? I didn't change back!" Frank said.

In front of us, the god looked annoyed but unharmed.

"Yes," he said to Frank, "well, Mars was stupid enough to give you such a remarkable gift. But in a way, Mars is me, and me took it back." He waved his hand at Frank and he went up in smoke and before as I lunged for him I vanished too.

Ω

_Jason's Point of View_

I remembered my barracks at Camp Jupiter. It was a little crowded, like the Hermes Cabin here. There were only two demigods in my cabin, me and my sister, Thalia. It felt really empty. All I did these days was stare at my father and his master bolt.

I jolted up as soon as I heard a roar outside and the noise of campers hustling and yelping outside. I stormed out and saw the entire camp staring at Percy's cabin.

_Oh, what's Tyson done again?_

But then I saw Tyson come out from the armory. The crowd "oohed" and aahed". I looked at Percy's cabin again and saw a dragon come out of nowhere and breath fire but then disappear only moments later. It was probably Frank.

I felt my feet lift off from the ground and I flew towards Poseidon's Cabin. As I flew over, I could see no sign of Piper which worried me a lot. I couldn't see Annabeth or Hazel, which worried me even more. I was a little reassured when I saw my best friend Leo climbing down the rope ladder of the Argo II and run over towards the cabin. There was a very large gap in the roof now and I could see a ten-foot tall god with his hands crossed and tapping his foot. He looked at me, apparently very amused. I slowed down and hovered over the cabin.

"Lord Mars? What is this?" I said to him in a firm tone.

"Try again, kid" he said. Leo sprinted over and when he saw the god his eyes widened.

"That's not Mars" he said in a weak voice.

I understood immediately and I remembered how Percy had told me a story of how this god had a long hatred for him. I summoned a bolt of lightning from the sky and it came down with a loud BOOM, CRACKLE, and the smell of ozone. Leo knew what to do and his hands immediately caught on fire. He let a stream of fire engulf the god. As the fire retreated, I saw that we were most definitely screwed.

"Well that didn't work," said Leo.

"What have us gods been feeding you kids lately. Dragons, fire, lightning, boulders, charmspeak…That won't work on me" said the god with a flicker of flames in his eyes. He grew in size and grabbed me and Leo with fists as large as a building. As soon as he grabbed me, everything around me disappeared and everything became dark.

"LET THIS BE A WARNING FOR PERCY JACKSON! HE MESSES WITH ME, THE GOD OF WAR, I WILL DESTROY HIM!" screamed the war god with rage. Then he went up in flames and disappeared himself.


	4. The Prophecy

I was happy to see Annabeth again. I was also happy to see that she was in my cabin. That wasn't allowed in camp which made her even more awesome. Maybe could catch and do some other stuff in there when I got back…If you know what I mean.

The mist in the fountain rippled and vanished and the Iris-Message was over. I swam out of Poseidon's palace and concentrated on swimming upwards. I willed the water to propel me as fast as it could. I sped up and then soon everything around me was a blur. I also wanted to try a new trick. My dad had made me appear in another part of the world just by pulling me into the water. I imagined the Canoe Lake at Camp Half-Blood. I could see the calm, blue water surrounded by trees. South of the lake I could see the Arts and Crafts building, the Big House and the Volleyball Courts. West of the lake I could see the Cabins. My cabin was really comfortable. I could see me trident and Minotaur horn on display. I could see Tyson sleeping on his bunk with a vat of peanut butter in his arms, snoring so loud that you could hear him from the strawberry fields. After all of these images of home entered my head I focused on the one of Annabeth and I opened my eyes. The water around me was getting lighter and I could see the surface above me. I was almost there…and then I bonked my head on a canoe.

This made me really sad because I was planning on shooting out of the water at such a speed that I would fly up twenty, thirty feet, impressing everyone. I was known for my dramatic entrances. I would've gotten away with it too if it hadn't been for that stupid canoe. I swam back down a little and moved a little to the right. Then I sped up again and shot straight out of the water, higher than expected. I could see all of Camp-Half Blood for a moment, but the first thing that caught my eye was the hoard of campers around my cabin. I could make out some of the little shapes as Nico Di Angelo, Chiron and Dionysus.

I started falling back down now but the water rose up to catch me and then deposited me on the beach of the lake. As soon as I landed I sprinted across the greenery towards the cabins. I ran multiple scenarios in my head and the only logical reason that all those campers would gather there was if Tyson blew something up. I laughed at the thought of seeing my brother again and slowed down as I approached Chiron.

"All right, what did Tyson blow up this time?" I said jokingly. As soon as they saw me, the campers made serious faces. Some looked traumatized and some were crying. The older ones seemed to be thinking hard about something. I turned to Chiron, "Chiron, what happened?" He gestured towards my cabin. As the campers moved away and went back to whatever they were doing before, I could finally get a clear look of my cabin.

Saying that was a mess was the understatement of the millennia. It looked like a hoard of _venti_ had tornadoed through the cabin, a hydra had burned it down, the Minotaur had stampeded through it multiple times and like Zeus had sat on top of it. My Iris-Messaging Fountain was destroyed. There was water all over the floor and wooden splinters everywhere else. There was a boulder on my bed and a huge hole in the ground as if all of the dirt underneath the cabin had been emptied out. The shield that Tyson had made me a few years back was loosely hanging on the nearly destroyed wall, just like how my jaw was hanging.

"WHAT…THE…HADES…HAPPENED…HERE?!" I screamed. After that I couldn't seem to get any words out.

Dionysus looked pretty amused and said nonchalantly, "Well, Peter Johnson, it's not as bad as it looks."

Nico turned to look at him and gave him a nice I-am-the-freaking-son of-Hades look, "Oh really? You're kidding, right Mr. D?"

"Yeah, this is much worse than it looks! Haha! Let me see…I think campers reported that someone had willed the earth, a dragon had blown fire, a lightning bolt had shot down from the sky, and another camper used fire!" he exclaimed. Chiron came over to me and put his hands on my shoulder and told me what happened.

"Percy, there was a god here. He caused all of the destruction. Mr.D and I were reported of what was happening by Nico but were too late" Chiron explained. Just then I had a shocking realization.

"Oh my gods, Annabeth was in there!" I ran in and looked around for her. "ANNABETH!" I yelled. I saw the boulder on my bed and used all of my strength to push it off. Annabeth was nowhere to be found, but I think I knew the god that had done this. The name **ARES **was burned onto the bed sheet.

"ARES!" I yelled. I didn't know why now. It had been years since I had beaten him. But he had decided to destroy everything once everything was actually getting back to normal. Chiron strode in, his eyes widened and then he galloped out to the courtyard. He called out very loud and clear.

"EMERGECY COUNCIL MEETING! TWELVE OLYMPIAN CABIN COUNSELORS! BIG HOUSE! NOW!"

Ω

Chiron took me and Nico and galloped over to the Big House. Nico and I jumped off of him and went down into the game room. I took my normal seat at the ping-pong table whenever we had a council meeting. Nico sat down in the Hades Cabin seat. He was the only one allowed to attend council meetings who wasn't from the original twelve cabins. I sat with my head down and was tapping my feet impatiently when Thalia walked in, her face grim. Miranda Gardiner and Will Solace came in and sat down in the Demeter and Apollo seats silently. Clarrise La Rue came in with a sad face and sat down with her shoulders slumped in the Ares seat. I tried to keep a straight when I saw her but she kept reminding me of her monster father, Ares. Malcolm walked and sat down in Annabeth's usual chair, but since she was MIA, he was the head counselor until Annabeth was found. Phoebe came in with broad shoulders and sat down in the Artemis Chair and kept looking at Thalia with a concerned look. Nyssa and Drew Tanaka came down and sat in place of Leo and Piper in the Hephaestus and Aphrodite chairs. Even Connor and Travis were frowning, which was a rare sight to see, as they took their place in the wide Hermes chair. Finally Pollux sat down next to his father Mr. D and Chiron started the council meeting.

"As you all know, this emergency meeting is taking place because there was a hostile attack by a god here recently. That god was Ares."

Some of the counselors muttered with each other and Clarrise looked distressed. Next Malcolm spoke up.

"Annabeth was the first to walk into the Poseidon Cabin. Next were Piper McLean, Hazel Levesque, Frank Zhang, Jason Grace and Leo Valdez. Whoever went in didn't come out. It's like they disappeared" Malcolm said with a curious tone.

"So what do we assume?" asked Miranda Gardiner.

"Most likely, Lord Ares is keeping these campers hostage" said Phoebe.

"But why? What does he want?" asked Connor Stoll. Everyone turned to look at me and I stood up.

"Ares and I had a small disagreement when I was twelve. He had Zeus's Master Bolt and Hades's Helm of Darkness. I impaled him in the heel with my sword and he was pretty humiliated. After that he promised me that he would destroy everything that I held dear. I guess now he decided to strike. I never thought that he would kidnap my friends…" I sat back down.

"This isn't your fault Percy" said Thalia reassuringly, "but we need to figure out a plan to bring them back."

"Ares could've taken them all anywhere in the world. But hey, at least I'm head counselor now that Piper is gone," said Drew cheerily.

Nyssa shot her a look. "It will be hard to find them now that we don't have our master strategist and master mechanic."

There was silence for a while. But then as Clarrise was about to stand up to say something, the lights flickered out. Drew shrieked. The campers were whispering furiously and Chiron got them all to shut up. I had no idea how I would get Annabeth back when I saw the ground. There was a thin layer of green mist. It was very familiar and then I realized what was about to happen.

"Guys, brace yourself. This might freak you out a little" I said as I turned around towards the stairs. The green mist slowly increased and I could see someone coming down the stairs. But when they got closer, I could see that they were slightly hovering. Drew shrieked even louder and a few counselors gasped. A girl about my age floated towards the ping-pong table with her hand help out. She had a green aura and her eyes were glowing like emerald. Then she stopped moving and the campers calmed down. Suddenly, her mouth opened and green mist coiled out. Drew fainted. In a raspy voice, Rachel Elizabeth Dare channeled the Oracle.

_The children of the three eldest gods will travel back_

_To where the child of the sea started it all,_

_He shall face war himself _

_And the intruder shall fall._

_But only the demigods together shall prevail,_

_The sea child put his vengeance aside,_

_And the traitor shall come back in chains_

_By the help of the gods and their spawn, alongside._

Then Rachel fell down to the ground and the lights flickered back on.

Ω

Thalia went over to revive Drew and I rushed over to help Rachel.

"Ow…my head" she said in a daze.

"Are you alright, Rachel?" I asked as I helped her up to her feet. "You just gave us a prophecy."

"Well that explains what I'm doing here" she said.

Chiron paced back and forth and talked to himself, "I haven't heard of this prophecy before."

Nico spoke up. "_The children of the three eldest gods. _That would be me, Thalia and Percy. The rest indicates that we and the gods will defeat Ares and bring him back to Olympus in chains. That's good, right?"

Mr. D raised his eyebrow. "Prophecies are never that simple, boy. We just haven't seen the twist yet."

I went over to Chiron. "The three of us will go on this quest Chiron. We have no other option. But I think we should pay a visit to the gods up in Olympus. They will want to know about what has happened."

Chiron thought for a while and then nodded his head. "Very well. You, Thalia, Nico, and Rachel should go to Olympus. Recite the prophecy again if needed to convince the gods." Then he faced the rest of the table. "Meeting adjourned."

Ω

**_ALL RIGHTS TO RICK RIORDAN. PLEASE TELL ME HOW IT WAS AND THE NEXT CHAPTER WILL COME OUT SOON!_**


	5. A Quest for the Gods?

When the council meeting was adjourned, all the counselors sat up and went back up the stairs to continue their activities. Nico, Thalia, Rachel and I stayed in our seats. Clarisse was the last one to leave. She looked troubled and opened her mouth to say something but evidently decided not to. She went up the stairs and even tripped once. I made a mental note to talk with Clarisse once I got back from Olympus. I turned over to Chiron and asked him about Rachel.

"Chiron, why does Rachel need to come to Olympus? No offense, Rachel, but I need to know why you have to come when we can recite it ourselves" I asked.

"Oh, none taken," she said, "but my guess is that I need to go just in case the gods don't believe you. They can be stubborn like that. Anyway, I've always wanted to go to Olympus."

Chiron nodded. "Precisely, Ms. Dare. Now, I must talk to these three campers. I would appreciate it if you could tell Argus to get the van ready to drive to the Empire State Building. "

Rachel walked over to the stairs and muttered on her way up. "Got it Chiron…Argus creeps me out…"

Once Rachel was gone, Chiron faced the three of us, his face was grim. "Percy, I have never heard of this prophecy. It is very dangerous to go on this quest. You'll have to ask the gods to cooperate or we may never get our campers back." I nodded.

Thalia, Nico, and I exited the Big House and headed down to the camp border. Argus with his hundreds of creepy blue eyes was waiting for us very patiently and when he saw us he jumped into the car. Rachel was sitting in the passenger seat.

"Aw, heck no!" Nico exclaimed in protest.

"Hey, death boy, I called Argus, I got here first, I called shotgun" Rachel said with an annoyed tone in her voice.

I didn't even care. I sat silently in the back with thoughts swimming in and out of my head. Thalia and Nico were sitting on both sides of me. Nico was kind of squished next to me and extremely close which made both of us uncomfortable, but Nico seemed more agitated. I wondered what that was all about.

Argus pulled the strawberry van out of camp and we headed west, towards the island of Manhattan. I watched out the window the whole time and I could only think of Annabeth. I couldn't imagine what she and the others were facing, but I knew that none of this would've happened if it weren't for me. Thalia put her hand on my shoulder. "This will all go away, Percy. Everything will be all right-"

"Then why do I feel like they're all lost to me forever. How was no one able to stop him? What was Dionysus doing while Ares was taking Annabeth? Surely a god would've noticed. And what were you and Nico, two of the most powerful demigods I know, doing while Ares was terrorizing the camp?!" I exploded.

There was a really long silence. Everybody in the car stared at me, even the eyes on Argus's neck. Thalia's jaw dropped and then she looked like she was about to yell at me. Blue electricity cackled and surged through her eyes. Then I calmed down.

"I'm sorry…that was really harsh. There was nothing anyone could've done…except Mr. D, but I gave up on him a long time ago."

We all chuckled for a bit. Thalia seemed to simmer down.

"Okay. Now we need to get serious. We'll get them back. We always succeed in all of our quests" said Nico.

I agreed with him. I had to focus on the mission if I wanted to get my friends back. "You're right Nico. We'll go to Olympus. We'll tell the gods about what has happened. If they help us, that's great. If they don't, then the three of us will go west and look around for Ares. We'll take him down and bring him back to Olympus in chains."

"Sounds legit" said Rachel with a mouthful of strawberries.

It was a sunny day in Manhattan. There was the usual traffic. Argus slowed down as we approached the towering Empire State Building. All of us hopped out of the car and I told Argus to wait for us. Then we went in to the building.

"Uh, what are we doing at the Empire State Building? I thought you guys would've used some magical doo-hickey and we would've been halfway to Greece already" said Rachel.

"Olympus is much closer. It's at the top of the Empire State Building" explained Thalia.

"Of course, how could I've been so stupid," said Rachel sarcastically.

We walked across the lobby and there were several tourists and staff members walking around, entering doors and reading plaques and whatnot. Some workers entered the elevators to head up to do their jobs. I strode over to the receptionist table and rang the bell on the counter. The receptionist was a lady, a really old one as a matter of fact. She had snow white hair (not to be confused with Snow White hair as in the princess) and was shoving chocolate in her mouth while reading a magazine. The receptionist showed no indication of noticing us. I rang it several more times.

"Hey lady! I don't care how old you are, you aren't dead. We need an audience with Zeus" yelled Nico as he waved his hands in front of the lady's face.

She put her magazine down and swallowed her chocolate. I thought she was about to call security when she asked us, "What floor?"

"Six Hundredth floor, please" I said, more politely than Nico.

"What?" she said.

"Six Hundredth" I said again.

"Oh," she said as she bent over the table to grab a golden key on the table. She handed it to me. "You know what to do." She went back to eating and reading.

The four of us walked over to the elevator and made sure that no one was coming towards us. Then I closed the door and inserted the key into the key slot. When I turned it, a golden button appeared and had **600 Ω **written on it. Thalia pressed the button and turned to Rachel.

"You may want to hang on to something" she said.

Rachel looked confused. "Hang on to something? This is an elevator, there's nothing to hang on to…Why would I need to-"

It was too late. The elevator suddenly shot up as fast as a train and gradually increased. Rachel fell back and slammed into the wall. She kept her mouth shut because nothing came out even when she opened it. The horrible music played and everything was normal. Then the elevator stopped and Rachel flew up a little and dropped to the floor.

"Ow, that was extremely painful."

Nico smiled, "Ah, you'll get used to it."

Rachel shook her head vigorously. "I don't think I want to get used to it."

The elevator door opened with a DING and Rachel and Thalia almost threw up. ]

"Wow, we're really high up here…" Rachel said with a weak voice. Then she turned to Thalia. "Why do you like you're about to hurl? I thought you were Zeus's kid."

"I just have a thing with heights. I almost burned some states around here with the sun chariot a few years ago…I'll be fine" Thalia said.

I walked out of the elevator and still couldn't help feeling amazed. Olympus was amazing. The architecture was incredible and grand. The nymphs and satyrs ran around having fun and other people walked throughout a market place. The nine muses played their instruments and drew crowds toward them. On top of the mountain was an enormous pavilion made of marble and gold, glinting in the sunlight. We leaped across the floating rock steps toward the mainland and mountain. Underneath us I could see Manhattan but the cars and people were too small to see. Even the top of the Empire State Building was barely visible.

We walked through the crowds of the residents of Mount Olympus. They were very polite and let us pass without question. As we trekked up the mountain, I had a realization.

"Um guys. I just realized that today isn't a solstice. The gods don't have any reason to be in the throne room today. What if they aren't there?" I asked.

"We'll call them. You've done it before, haven't you" Thalia said as she started climbing the gleaming marble steps to the throne room.

I understood what she was talking about, except I didn't think it was the best idea. The last time I had "called" my dad from the throne room I had almost been incinerated.

Nico and I pushed open the doors and Rachel stumbled in with her eyes shining with excitement. The throne room of the gods was even more magnificent than the buildings outside. There were thirteen massive thrones that were ten times taller than I was. They were arranged in a U shape with a fire roaring in the center of the room. There was one throne at the top of the "U" and there were six on the left and six on the right. The one that was at the head of the U was Zeus's throne. On the left side were Hera, Athena, Aphrodite, Artemis, Demeter, and Hades's thrones. On the right were Poseidon, Ares, Hephaestus, Ares, Hermes, and Dionysus's thrones.

"All right, do your demigod toast thing now Percy," Nico said with his hands in his pockets.

"Oh, yeah…why don't you do it Nico? I mean, Hades finally has a throne on Olympus, you should try it out yourself" I said in a challenging tone with my hands crossed.

"Oooh…it's getting HOT in here" said Rachel.

Nico eyed Rachel. Then he looked at Thalia. "Why doesn't Thalia do it? Her dad _is _Zeus and I'm the youngest one here!"

"Um, that's where you're wrong, Nico. I'm fifteen for all eternity, thanks to my matron goddess Artemis. _You _were born in the 1930's."

"Oooh…you just got burned…demigod style…" Rachel said after she licked her tongue and made a burning hiss noise.

"Fine, why don't we all do it? I mean aside from Rachel…she's not a demigod. It's not like anything bad will happen…unless we sit on them for long" I said, ending the argument. I remembered how I had sat on my dad's throne to get his attention during the Battle of Manhattan. I was really crispy afterwards…

"Fine," said Nico and Thalia at the same time. We all walked towards our parent's thrones. I walked to the right towards the giant, black, leather beach chair. Nico hesitantly scooted towards his father's Stygian iron chair, made of ivory skulls and torched with Greek fire burning. Thalia confidently strode to the most massive throne in the room made of platinum with lightning bolts engraved on the sides.

We all swiftly climbed up the chairs and sat down on them. They were clearly made for 10-foot giant butts and not for demigods. As soon as I sat, a familiar burning sensation traveled throughout my body. Thalia nearly shrieked but managed to stay on Zeus's throne and Nico said that he was fine. Apparently Hades's chair was ice cold and didn't bother Nico.

Suddenly three booming voices rang throughout the throne room. They were coming from above us.

"WHO DARES SIT ON THE THRONE OF ZEUDONADES?!" Yeah, when they said their names at the same time, it sounded something like that. Thunder rumbled around us and then stopped suddenly.

"OH BROTHER, NOT AGAIN," said a loud voice that I recognized instantly as my father's.

"OH ME, THALIA WHAT IS THIS?" demanded Zeus.

"HOW DO YOU LIKE MY THRONE, SON?" asked Hades in a casual tone, like he didn't care what was happening.

"Um, it's awesome dad…" said Nico, surprised.

"PERCY, I THOUGHT YOU SAID YOU WOULDN'T DO THIS AGAIN? I ALMOST FRIED YOU AGAIN!" exclaimed Poseidon.

"THALIA, I AM VERY DISAPPOINTED IN YOU…JASON WOULD NEVER DO SOMETHING SO FOOLISH LIKE THIS!" said Zeus.

"Dad…Jason's gone" said Thalia, wincing when she said his name.

"HAH, THIS CAN"T BE GOOD…WAIT, WHERE IS HAZEL?" asked Hades.

"She's gone too" said Nico.

"WHAT HAS HAPPENED PERCY?" asked Poseidon.

"Dad…Zeus…Hades…all the gods need to come to Olympus. Right now," I said firmly.

There was a long silence. Then the fire in the middle of the throne room roared and something amazing happened.

Ω

A bolt of lightning shot out of nowhere and struck the hearth. After a loud BOOM, Lord Zeus emerged in his pinstripe suit, his expression serious. A beam of water shot out of the hearth and Lord Poseidon walked out, wearing his Hawaiian shirt and shorts, his trident in hand. It got really cold and the fire turned black and Lord Hades strode out with eyebrows arched. In a tornado, Lord Hermes bolted in the room. In blinding light and utter darkness, Lord Apollo and Lady Artemis materialize. In a flurry of soot, Lord Hephaestus comes into view. In a lovely pink light, Aphrodite strutted into sight, Athena following her, coming out of a flurry of gray owls. Demeter and Hera appeared with a poof. Mr. D appeared in a tangle of grape vines. All the Olympians were present except Ares.

"Children…you can move now" said Hades. All three of us remembered where we were and stumbled out of the seats. Our clothes were singed. Rachel had her mouth open wide. Clearly all of today's events had been a lot to handle. The gods took their seats and with a wave of Athena's hand, we didn't look like demigods that had just gotten out of the oven.

"Where is Ares?" Athena said.

"Trust me, he's not coming" I said.

"And what makes you so sure you know where a god is?" Athena asked.

"Because he is the reason we are all here" Thalia replied.

"Alright. I'm intrigued. What is the Oracle doing here?" asked Artemis.

"The Oracle has a name lady. It's Rachel Elizabeth Dare," said Rachel with a sassy attitude.

"Don't mind my sis, Rachel. I would assume you are here because of a prophecy" said Apollo.

Rachel nodded. Then I spoke up. "Ares, appeared this morning at Camp Half-Blood."

Murmuring and whispering broke out between the gods. Zeus cleared his throat and everyone silenced themselves. "What was my son doing, Percy?"

"He vandalized my cabin and caused a lot of damage. And he…and he…he took Annabeth." I said, my voice breaking up. That thought of her being kept hostage was killing me.

The gods gasped. Athena stood up. "WHAT?! He wouldn't dare!"

"Well he did!" said Nico, "and that's not all. He captured her first, then he took Piper, Hazel, Frank, Jason, and Leo."

There was quiet and then the gods burst out with angry remarks.

"No…not my Piper," said Aphrodite, clearly distressed.

"How could've this happened to our children?" asked Hephaestus.

"Is this why Ms. Dare is here? Was there a prophecy?" asked Poseidon.

I nodded. I turned towards Rachel and she knew what to do. She concentrated on the spirit inside of her. Then the fire in the hearth flickered. The torched in the room sputtered and died out. Rachel rose as the gods stared directly at her, some surprised at what happened. Rachel's eyes glowed and her hair blew behind her. A coil of green mist slithered out of her mouth and spread over the floor. Then Rachel said in an old and raspy voice:

"_I am the Oracle of Delphi,_

_Speaker of the Prophecies of Phoebus Apollo, slayer of the mighty Python._

_Approach seeker, and ask"_

Zeus spoke loudly. "Show us the prophecy of the seized campers."

The Oracle nodded and then recited a prophecy:

"_The king of the gods, his brother, and children_

_Journey the realm of the riches to its deepest depth._

_They will face obstacles in search of their spawn_

_And free them at their last breath._

_They will have to achieve this with the help of the damned and dead_

_Then only will they achieve the rest"_

I was so confused that I forgot to catch Rachel. As the prophecy ended, the fire flickered back on and Rachel collapsed. She stood back up, clearly annoyed.

"That's the third time I've hit my head on the floor Percy!"

"That wasn't the prophecy from camp…there are two quests." I said astounded.

"One for the demigods," said Thalia.

"And one for the gods" said Zeus, shocked himself.


	6. The War God Throws Down the Gauntlet

The fact that the gods had to go on a quest surprised everyone in the room. But it wasn't long before everyone recovered and began guessing what the prophecy meant.

"_The king of the gods; _that's obviously my husband" said Hera.

"_His brother,"_ said Poseidon, "could be either me or Hades."

"_And his children," _said Athena, "Lord Zeus has many children…"

"No need to remind me, Athena," said Hera, clearly irritated.

"But I would assume that he would mean his Olympian children, myself included," finished Athena.

"Ha! Even all of his Olympian children aren't mine," Hera exclaimed.

"Enough, Hera," said Zeus, seeing how his children problem would lead to an angry wife, "_They will face obstacles in search of their spawn._ I understand now. I am evidently the king of the gods-"

"Don't rub it in, brother," spat Hades.

"-Hades is my brother. My children are Athena, Hephaestus, and Aphrodite. All of us have our children being held captive by Ares…We will be the five to go on this quest."

"Sucks that Frank was actually captured by his dad, or at least his Greek form…the kid is a good archer" said Apollo.

"_And free them at their last breath_…That doesn't sound all that comforting," said Aphrodite.

"_They will have to achieve this with the help of the damned and the dead…realm of riches…deepest depths…_is anyone daring to think what I'm dreading?" asked Hermes.

Then it clicked in my head. I knew where the demigods where. As the gods babbled about the prophecy, their voices faded out. I couldn't hear anything around me, except my heartbeat, which was pounding so fast that I felt it would explode. My brain was having trouble processing my thoughts. I felt my knees wobble, and then I collapsed. Everything was still silent and I could see Nico darting toward me, talking to me. He tried to help me up but I couldn't move. Just then, above the hearth, a ring of fire erupted in midair. It was like an Iris-Message. A giant face materialized and I felt my body fire up from head to toe. The face was all too familiar. The man had a pair a black shades on with flames in his eyes visible from behind. He had a black leather jacket with spikes and a taunting grin.

"Great to see the whole family is here," said Ares.

"ARES! YOU-" I started.

"Save it Jackson. You brought this upon yourself," he said. "My fellow Olympians, you have probably discovered that I have taken some of your campers, those closest to Jackson. I have found them all a nice hole in the depths Tartarus to rot until they are rescued, which will be extremely difficult. I warn you though; you only have a few days, at most, to save your children. At the end of each day, I will cut off someone's limb…starting with her!" He moved away to reveal all of the six campers that were taken. Most of them were drenched in blood. Their clothes were torn and they were screaming. Golden chains were keeping them captive. I could see rivers of fire and black sand around them. Ares was pointing to Annabeth.

Athena got up out of her throne. "ARES! You wouldn't dare harm Annabeth. If you touch her, I'll-"

"You're in no position to negotiate, Athena," said Ares with a maniacal grin. "The clock is clicking. Tick-tock…"

I got to my feet. Anger surged throughout my body. I felt nothing but hatred towards Ares. Annabeth saw me and she mouthed the words "I'll be fine…" I knew she wouldn't be. There was no way that the gods could rescue them in one day. We had trekked Tartarus once, and I was sure she didn't have the willpower to do it again.

There room shook violently out of me. Athena fell back down in to her seat and the gods held onto their thrones. They looked around, gasping and wondering what was happening. I screamed at Ares and then I stomped my foot hard on the marble floor. A wide crack appeared at my feet and it snaked over to Ares's throne. His seat of power crumpled to dust and Ares screamed in agony. The fiery Iris-Message dissipated.

Poseidon raised an eyebrow at me and then smiled for a second. The gods didn't say anything, but I knew I had made a mistake. I had probably angered him even more, but the earthquake I had caused was a first-time thing.

"All right then. We have no time to lose. Hades, Athena, Aphrodite, Hephaestus, and I will head into the abyss today. You three," Zeus said looking at me, Nico, and Thalia, "will follow your prophecy and defeat Ares as we rescue our children. Meeting adjourned."

Hades got up and the gods of the prophecy dissipated into black smoke, probably headed to the Underworld. The other gods left Olympus and the four of us headed back to Camp Half-Blood.

Ω

The Big House was overly crowded. Malcolm and the other Athena kids were moving about with maps and diagrams, thinking of a plan. Chiron was supervising all of them. I had gone over to the armory and Thalia, Nico, and I were preparing to go on our quest. When I got back to the Big House, I walked over to Malcolm.

"All right, talk to me Malcolm," I said.

"Oh hey Percy, so the prophecy said that you were supposed to travel back to where you started it all. We deduced that he meant the beach where you and Ares first fought in Los Angeles. You agree?" he asked.

I nodded. That was probably correct. Chiron came over to me.

"It says that you will face war himself, probably meaning Ares, and that the intruder shall fall. But it also says that you will have to work together with the other demigods, so don't take matters into your hands, Percy."

"I got it Chiron. I think we're all ready to go." I said.

"Okay," said Malcolm, "I gave Thalia a map. You should go through Pennsylvania and Cleveland first. Try to use shadow travel, even though Nico can only go a few miles without wearing himself off. Good luck, Percy." He walked away and I headed towards the camp border.

As I approached the van parked near the gates, I heard someone yelling my name.

"Jackson! Wait up!" Clarisse was running towards me with a backpack.

"Clarisse, we really have to-"

"Percy, I want to come with you guys" she said.

"What? The prophecy says-"

"That's crap, Jackson. Forget the prophecy for a second. Do you have any idea how I feel. My father just did the most horrible thing ever. I'm questioning everything he ever led me to believe. Besides, I'm prepared and you owe me a quest. Remember the whole Sea of Monsters thing."

I remembered what she was talking about. I had kinda interfered with her quest a few years back. I understood why she had to go.

"Okay, quickly, get in" I said. We jumped in the van and Thalia and Nico were already there, waiting.

"What's she doing here?" Nico asked.

"Nothing, I'll explain on the way. Right now, I need to drive." I hammered on the accelerator and we sped off, down Half-Blood Hill and West, towards the waiting war god.


	7. Dead Return, The Seized Go Through Hell

The strawberry van did NOT smell like strawberries. My foot felt like it was about to pop off my leg. It was around 4 o'clock in the afternoon and I had been driving for seven hours straight. I had never been in the van this long to actually realize that was kinda disgusting in here. There were Ziploc bags lying around in the van here and there with ambrosia crumbs in them. There was some blood on one of the seats from a wounded camper being rushed back to camp. In the back were some old weapons that made clanking noises whenever the van turned. The only thought that kept me going was Ares's threat. He would do something horrible to Annabeth tonight. The stupid in me wanted to keep driving without stopping and hope that I could travel across the country in one day, but in the back of my head I knew I wouldn't make it in time.

"Percy, you've been driving a long time. Let me drive," said Clarisse from the back of the van.

"No! We can't stop. I'm going to get there tonight…" I said.

Clarisse sighed and turned to Thalia in the. "I don't know what it is. Something about this quest seems off."

Thalia frowned. "Why? We're going to defeat Ares…um, sorry Clarisse… and the gods are going to rescue our friends from Tartarus. Are we missing anything?"

"Clarisse is right," Nico said, "we've been outside of camp for hours now. Where are the monsters?"

I sighed. "Nico…you never ASK for monsters. No monsters equal good luck. Why question good luck? Now you've probably jinxed us and a monster's going to pop out of nowhere…"

Just then two flying objects that I couldn't see clearly crashed in to the hood of the van. Thalia screamed and reached for an arrow in her quiver. I slammed on the breaks and we skidded off the road. The van was actually in the air for a moment and all of us screamed.

"AAAAHHH" I yelled as the car turned over and rolled on its side down the hill. The airbags flew out into my face and the car stopped upside down. My head hurt like nothing before and I managed to turn my head a little.

"Is…is everyone alright?!" I said weakly.

"I'm fine" said Thalia in the passenger seat next to me.

"Golden," said Nico in the seat behind me.

"I'm still in one piece," said Clarisse, "what were those things?"

"I have no idea. Clarisse, get out of the car and help me turn in over," I said.

We managed to get out and pushed the car. Clarisse did a lot of the heavy lifting but we managed to flip the car back. The car was undamaged, probably an enchantment, and I thought that we would be okay. We got back in the car and I slammed the pedal. We sped up the hill and got back into traffic. We snaked through the cars and people honked their horns and cursed at us.

"Percy! Look!" said Thalia. I looked in the rearview mirror and the color drained from my body. The two winged monsters that were attacking us were familiar. I had led them into Camp Jupiter about a year ago. I had decapitated their sister when I was twelve. And they looked even angrier now. One of them had red eyes and red coral snakes for hair. The other had an apron that said BARGAIN MART and green eyes and green snakes for hair. It was Euryale and Stheno, sisters of Medusa.

"Awww, hell no!" I said miserably and pounded the horn for the grandma driving in front of me to go faster.

"What is it Percy? Who are those monsters," asked Clarisse.

"Uggh. This lady won't hurry. She's going like 30 miles per hour!" I opened the window and stuck my head out, "HEY LADY! DRIVE FASTER! WE HAVE TWO MONSTERS CHASING US!" Then I closed the windows and spoke to Clarisse. "Remember the time when Hera did her whole switcheroo mess? I was finding my way to the Roman camp and these two had been harassing me my whole journey. I kept killing them and they kept coming back. I had the Curse of Achilles then, but now I don't, so they'll be able to hurt me. They're pretty dangerous." I took the EXIT on the right and headed towards the rest stop nearby.

Stheno and Euryale were still hot in pursuit. As we approached the rest stop, I saw that it was empty. I guess a lot of people didn't want to stop here. I screeched to a halt and the four of us spilled out with our weapons in hand. I took out my pen and Riptide shine bright. Thalia clinked her bracelet which turned into her shield, Aegis, and took out her bow and arrows. Clarisse had her electric spear and Nico unsheathed his Stygian Iron sword, cold as ice.

Stheno and Euryale approached as and we prepared ourselves for attack.

"You didn't take my wieners, Percy. I'm still offering," said Stheno, offering a platter of Bargain Mart samples.

"Guys," I said, "don't take the wieners. They have Gorgon's blood in them."

"We weren't going to take her wieners, Percy, you moron," said Clarisse.

"Stop talking about your freaking hot dogs Stheno!" yelled Euryale, "and you can but down the shield, Zeus-spawn. Having Medusa's head on that thing won't bother us; we had to see her ugly face for centuries."

"What are you doing here? I thought you were dead!" I exclaimed.

"We were rotting in Tartarus, thank you very much. But we reformed and were approached by a certain war god who offered us a job…" said Euryale.

"I was already employed at Bargain Mart, so I refused. But then Euryale talked me into taking both jobs," said Stheno with a smile.

"…so now we're here, keeping you from completing your quest" finished Euryale.

"Oh, and I think Ares said that we can't harm Percy, but the rest can die," said Stheno. Then she took her platter and threw it like a discus at Thalia. That's when the fighting began.

Thalia took out an explosive arrow and blew the platter halfway to Greece. Clarisse charged at Stheno and Euryale went for Nico. Nico took raised his sword and they clashed, sword vs. claws. Clarisse jabbed her spear towards Stheno and it cackled with electricity. The four of us had trained together many times at camp so we knew each other's move well. Stheno slashed at Clarisse and cut her arm, which made her even angrier. Clarisse was like Bruce Banner when she wasn't fighting but like the Hulk whenever she came into combat. Clarisse growled and threw her spear into Stheno's side. Thalia ran up to her and super charged the spear with a gajillion volts of her own electricity. Stheno shrieked and fell to the ground. Nico was doing well, too. He slashed at one of Euryale's wings and black ice encased it. I came over with Riptide and took care of the other wing.

Euryale couldn't fly anymore. She fell to the ground but stood up, trying to mask her pain.

"You think…you can beat…me?" asked Euryale in an angry tone, "I'm…"

"About to get run over by a strawberry van!" yelled Clarisse as she revved up the engine and floored it. Euryale's eyes widened and her body flew through the air. She landed somewhere in the bushes.

"Get in!" said Thalia, already in the passenger seat. Nico and I jumped in and Clarisse drove us out of the rest stop. We re-entered the highway and I groaned.

"There still behind us! Until we kill them, they're just going to keep healing" I said. Euryale's wings had reformed and she was flying toward us, only 20 yards away, with Stheno right behind her.

"Open the sun roof, Clarisse," said Nico. Clarisse had her eyes focused on the road in front of her and quickly clicked a button without looking. A portion of the car's roof opened up above and Nico rose from his seat.

"WOW IT'S REALLY WINDY!" he yelled. Then he closed his eyes and rubbed his hands together. In a few seconds, a small, dark, ball of energy formed between his fingers. He held it high and shot it towards the gorgons. It missed but hit a bird, which instantly vanished in a black hole of blackness.

"What was that?" I said, amazed and disappointed.

"I was experimenting one day with my shadow traveling abilities! That thing that I just projected shadow-travelled that poor bird to the Underworld!"

"Well aim better!" I yelled. Nico shot a few more balls but kept missing. Then I had an idea.

"Nico! Can you shadow travel the van?!" I asked.

Nico understood. He turned away from the gorgons and looked ahead. The road would turn at a very large hill. "Clarisse! Drive the van into that hill!" he shouted.

"Are you for real, Nico!" she said.

"Just do it!" I said. Clarisse sped up and head straight for the hill. Above, Nico rubbed his hands fast and a bigger ball formed. He shot it towards the hill and instantly there was a large black hole in front of us. Clarisse didn't slow down and in a moment, darkness consumed the entire van.

Ω

_The Palace of Hades, Underworld_

The gods of the prophecy were suited up in their battle gear. They all had on Ancient Greek tunics, breastplates and weapons of choice. Zeus had his master bolt and Hades had his Helm of Darkness and a sword similar to Nico's. Hephaestus had his hammer and could generate fire on command. Athena had her sword and shield and Aphrodite had a dagger like her daughter, Piper.

"Lovely place you have down here, Hades" said Zeus as the gods were walking through the Underworld.

"Yes, well I try to make the best of it," said Hades as he passed a pit of fire were tortured souls where screaming.

"Are you sure you're up to the challenge, Aphrodite?" asked Athena.

"I'll be fine. I'm doing it for Piper. She is very brave" responded Aphrodite.

"Tartarus is that way," said Hephaestus, pointing south, "Into that cave made of boulders. But the drop is seven days. We do not have that time."

Hades nodded. "It's evening time. We should go as fast as we can. As for the drop, let me worry about it."

The gods approached the cave and entered it without hesitation. There was a huge abyss with noises speaking from below. Hades spread his hands over the abyss and an enormous black hole formed.

"This should hasten the drop and deposit us directly into the pit," said Hades.

The gods nodded, and then at once the five of them fell in.

Ω

_The Brass Fortress, Tartarus_

"Uggh!" screamed Annabeth as she pulled as hard she could on the golden chains that bounded her inside some sort of jail cell. It was very large, made of brass. She recognized were she was instantly because of her previous trip to Tartarus. She had seen a Brass Fortress when she had passed the Delta of Despair with Percy. The six others were chained next to her and were still unconscious. With another scream she tried to break free, but with no luck. The others started waking up.

"Agh! My hands-" said Piper in a painful voice. Her hands were bloody and her clothes were ripped. The others didn't look any better.

"Where are we?" asked Frank as she tried to adjust herself in to a more comfortable position.

There was a silence and we could here screaming voices outside.

Hazel skin turned pale. She obviously knew where they were, being a daughter of Pluto.

Jason noticed that Hazel was scared. "We're in the Underworld aren't we?" he asked.

"Um, why would Hazel be afraid of the Underworld, Jason?" asked Leo.

"We're in one of the corners of Tartarus," said Annabeth.

Everyone was shocked, and Piper scooched over Annabeth and but her hand on her shoulder, "Oh, sweetie. This is horrible, even more for you. You think you'll be alright?"

Annabeth nodded and closed her eyes. She needed to rest and calm down.

"Why would Ares do this to us? What did we do to him?" asked Jason, growing angry.

"It's Percy. He has this old vendetta with him. He's using us to get to him. But why now, after all we've been through, I have no idea," Annabeth said, her eyes still closed, "I miss my stupid Seaweed Brain."

Piper and Hazel went over to comfort Annabeth when the war god approached their cell. Everyone looked at him with an angry look, except they were shocked to see that he looked like an old man.

"What happened Ares?" asked Leo. "Looks like the crap finally hit the fan."

"SHUT UP, scrawny boy!" Ares said in a weak voice. Everyone's chains tightened and they yelped in pain. "Idiot Jackson blew up my throne!"

Annabeth smiled. "That was smart. But you probably should've seen that coming."

"Silence, wise mouth. Thanks for the concern though" Ares said. He staggered a little but regained his balance.

"Shouldn't you be dead now that your seat of power is destroyed?" asked Annabeth.

"If it was that easy to destroy a god, I would've perished a long time ago. Jackson isn't the only one who's managed to damage my throne over the centuries. But no has managed to cripple it. As long as the gods still have believers, we live. I'll heal in time for my upcoming battle…" Ares said. It looked like he was healing slowly as we spoke.

"Percy will crush you" said Frank.

"We all will see in good time," Ares chuckled and opened the cell door. He stepped in and shut the cell door behind him. "But for now, a day has gone by and Percy has not reached the battle zone. No one has come to rescue you. That means I will have to keep my promise." He walked over to Annabeth with a sword.

No one on Earth, Olympus, or Tartarus had heard screams so loud.


	8. I Journey in Dreams and Fight Zombies

_Inside a Shadow Tunnel: Percy, Clarisse, Thalia, and Nico_

Shadow travel wasn't really a new concept to me. Nico and I had once shadow travelled to my old nemesis's mother via shadow travel. The first time, shadow travel made me want to curl up and throw up in a corner, but after a while I had gotten used to how it felt. Unfortunately, this was Thalia and Clarisse's first time going on a quest with Nico.

I was sitting comfortably in the back but the others didn't seem like they were doing too well. Clarisse's eyes were wide and she looked green, but her foot didn't move from the gas pedal. Thalia on the other hand rolled down the window and hurled, her vomit flying back in to the darkness. It wasn't a very pretty sight.

The tunnel of darkness that we were shooting through seemed to be faltering. Seams of light burst through above us and Nico looked like he was about to collapse. After another minute or so his knees wobbled and fell onto the seat next to me. Clarisse shut the sun roof and then the dark, smoky tunnel around us dissipated. We screeched into traffic and the first things we heard were about a dozen horns honking. Clarisse seemed to regain control of herself and swerved to right...hard.

"Uggh! Stupid van!" she exclaimed as the car was turning furiously. In the front, Thalia shrieked and was pushed right into Clarisse. I slammed into the window next to me and Nico fell on top of me. He quickly backed away, his face red, and then shouted at Clarisse as the car stopped in a parking lot.

"Who taught you how to drive?!" he screamed.

"Excuse me!?" she hollered, "You can't get behind the wheel yet, so stop backseat babbling at me. And I would've been able to drive right if you hadn't plopped us right in the middle of the road during the six o'clock evening office traffic!"

"Oh, I think I'm gonna puke again," said Thalia getting out of the car.

I got out to, but not because I felt like my stomach was coming out of my mouth. I felt like I had been here before, except during the daytime, a few years ago. I turned around and sighed. The Gateway Arch of St. Louis, Missouri loomed in front of me. Nico walked over to me.

"Sorry Perce. This was as far as I could take us before I lost all of my energy. I remembered this place from one of your stories and decided to stop here before I would fall unconscious."

"It's fine. You did great, sped up the journey. I just don't have a lot of great memories here…" I said.

The Arch looked cooler and different in the evening time, but I could remember what had happened here on my first quest like it had happened yesterday. I had been attacked by Chimera and Echidna on the top of the arch and was forced to jump of the edge, into the Mississippi River, so I could save my life.

I turned around and decided that we all needed a quick break, especially Nico and Clarisse. I went over to the back of the van and opened the doors. There was a duffel bag with food and snacks and everyone came over for a light dinner.

"So what's the plan?" asked Clarisse with a mouthful of chips.

I thought for a while. The gods were probably well on their way to Tartarus. We were making good time, but I knew something bad had happened to Annabeth. A day had passed and unless the gods had miraculously found the demigods in one day, Ares had done something horrible to my girlfriend. I tried to push that thought aside but I could only get angrier.

"Nico, when's the latest, you can shadow travel again?"I asked.

"Oh! Hell no! I'm not going through that again." Clarisse said.

We all looked at her and she realized she hadn't meant what she had said.

"Sorry…whatever gets us to Los Angeles faster helps" she said.

"I don't think I'll be able to conjure enough energy until tomorrow afternoon…sorry, but I don't think I can help you get far in time." Nico said.

"Any other ideas?" I asked, growing impatient.

"No, but we need to get moving soon. If Ares hired Stheno and Euryale to delay us, he probably has other monsters ready to attack us."

I nodded. "Alright…we'll sleep for three hours, then we drink up some Red Bull, none for you Nico, and we head west."

Everyone seemed fine with the plan. We got back in the van and everyone closed their eyes. As my eyes drooped, I thought of what pain Annabeth was probably in. Then I had a demigod dream.

_The Upper Cliffs near the River Phlegethon, Tartarus: Zeus, Hades, Athena, Hephaestus, and Aphrodite_

The gods dropped and into the abyss and fell through Hades's shadow portal. Before they knew it, they were in a cave similar to the one they had entered in the Underworld. Zeus led them out of the cave and they knew there was no turning back now.

"Welcome to Tartarus," said Hades.

They were all standing on a cliff next to a fiery river. In the distance, they could see about three more rivers that looked like they were flowing from the Underworld.

"Wow. Tartarus is larger than I imagined" said Aphrodite nervously.

"Indeed. Ares would've hidden the demigods in a heavily secured location. Is there any such place in Tartarus, uncle?" asked Athena.

Hades thought for a moment. Then he looked across the rivers and pointed to a glowing palace in the distance.

"Over there. The Brass Fortress would be the best location. We will have to cross four of Tartarus's deadliest rivers and it has extremely secure cells built for the world's worst monsters. That's where they will most likely be" said Hades.

"Then we shall go," said Hephaestus as he headed towards the River Phlegethon, the first river that they head to cross. Just then, loud screams rang throughout Tartarus. Athena had a shocking realization and the gods rushed towards the river, following Hephaestus. Then Percy's dream shifted and he was standing in front of a cell with Ares himself next to him.

_The Brass Fortress, Tartarus: Annabeth, Jason, Leo, Frank, Piper, and Hazel_

"AGGGHHH! AGHHHH!" Annabeth screamed in agony. Blood was gushing out of her right side like a river. She had never seen so much red. Annabeth stared and screamed at the blood and where her right arm used to be.

When Ares had severed Annabeth's arm, all the demigods had screamed. Leo, Jason, and Frank pulled hard at their chains, trying to lunge at Ares. When the god had left, Hazel and Piper rushed over to Annabeth.

"Oh my gods! Oh my gods!" shouted Hazel.

"Someone give my something to stop the blood!" Piper yelled as she tried using her hands to stop the blood.

Hazel crawled over to Jason, who was the nearest demigod, and ripped his shirt off. He was surprised but didn't say anything. The other boys also crawled over to Annabeth.

"It's alright Annabeth, hang on!" said Leo, trying to comfort her.

"She's losing a lot of blood!" said Frank.

Piper tied Jason's shirt on Annabeth's side and it stopped the blood from getting out for a while.

"This isn't right! She's going to die of pain or infection. We need to sedate her somehow!" said Jason frantically.

"AGGH! DON'T! AGGH! I'LL BE FINE! AGGHH! TRY TO GET OUT OF HERE!" yelled Annabeth.

I couldn't do anything in my dream. I screamed but no sound came out. I couldn't move either. Then I saw Ares walk up to the cell.

"Ahhh, the soothing sound of agony" he said. Then he looked at Jason. "Don't worry, half-brother, tomorrow will be your turn."

Jason turned pale white. My anger was about to make me explode like a volcano. Then Ares grew silent and then slowly turned to me.

"Ah, so Jackson comes to visit in his dream. I'll make sure that doesn't happen again."

I freaked out. How could Ares sense me in a dream? Annabeth screamed my name.

"PERCY!" Then Ares waved his hands and I dissipated like smoke. The next thing I knew, I was waking up in the car, screaming.

Ω

"AHH! OH GODS!" I screamed.

Everyone's eyes shot open. It was pretty dark outside. There wasn't as much traffic as there was before. Nico came over to me.

"What?! What happened?!" he asked.

I was panting and sweating. I sat up in my seat and leaned closer to the window. My heart was racing.

"It was a dream. I was in Tartarus…the gods were on their way to free the others. Then I saw…I saw blood. It was Annabeth. Ares cut off her arm…there was so much and she looked like she was going to die…"

Thalia gasped and put her hands to her mouth. She was one of Annabeth's oldest friends and imagining her like that would've been hard for her too. We all just sat there, silently for a few minutes, Thalia crying, me just staring off into space, and Clarisse and Nico looking very grim.

Suddenly, Clarisse screamed, "EVERYONE, GRENADE LAUNCHER!" We all looked through the windshield of the van and we could see a blur in the distance with a grenade launcher. A grenade shot towards us and came crashing through the windshield. I tried to shield myself from the glass. Nico grabbed all of us and in a poof of dark smoke we appeared in the parking lot, about twenty yards away from the van. For a second, nothing happened. Then the van exploded.

BOOM! The sound was deafening. Shrapnel burst in every direction. We got a few cuts, but we were fine. The side of the van flew towards me and it had the charred face of a smiling strawberry on it. The fiery explosion was an emerald green and much larger than any other van explosion I had seen, and I had seen a lot of these vans explode.

"Damn it, Nico! Why did you bring that much Greek Fire!" barked Clarisse.

"Hey! I just save your life!" Nico hollered back.

Clarisse got up and pointed at the source of the explosion. "Well there's a whole lot more of where that came from."

We all looked through the smoke and debris. As it settled, I could make out about sixty or seventy armed skeleton warriors.

"Oh crap." I said. I dug into my pocket and pulled out Riptide. Clarisse, Nico, and Thalia all readied themselves with their weapons as well. The soldiers were all from lost battles throughout history, some from ancient times, dressed in breastplates and swords, others from World War II with machine guns and other lovely weapons.

"More gifts from your father?" Thalia asked Clarisse.

"Seems like it," she said as she cracked her neck, "I was getting bored anyway,"

I looked at all of them and nodded. Then we charged.

I led them, and we ran towards the soldiers, yelling angrily. The skeletons charged at us, too. When we approached the skeletons, Nico instantly vanished in darkness and appeared somewhere else within the crowd of undead monsters. His Stygian Iron sword was very effective against them and they returned to the Underworld after exploding into gold dust. Thalia dashed into a group of skeletons with Aegis and her bow and arrows. The sky above us crackled and a bolt of lightning shot down from the heavens, instantly frying a dozen zombie fighters. Clarisse and I slashed and jabbed at them as well but they wouldn't stay dead for long. Only Nico could send them back to the Underworld for good…must've been some power of Hades.

After a while, I realized that we were getting tired and the soldiers just kept coming at us. Then I felt something hot on my chest. I struck a skeleton with Riptide and then looked down. The blue necklace that my father had given to me back in Atlantis was glowing and I remembered his words.

_Where there is water, there is a way…_

I looked behind me. The Mississippi River was flowing behind the Gateway Arch. Then I had an idea.

"Guys! Fall back! Run towards the river!" I said as I kicked a skeleton back down to the ground.

"What? Why!" yelled Clarisse as she temporarily killed another Ancient undead warrior.

"Just do it! I can get us out of here! Besides, it's not like the van can help us now!" I yelled, running towards the river.

They all followed me. And by all I meant Clarisse, Nico, Thalia and about thirty some dead bodies.

"Hold my hand! Make a chain!" I yelled.

We kept running but Nico grabbed Thalia' hand, Thalia grabbed my hands and I grabbed Clarisse.

"This better work Percy," said Thalia.

As we approached the river, I focused on make an air bubble so we could all breathe. Then all of us jumped in, holding hands, screaming for our lives.


	9. Blast from the Past

_The Rivers of Tartarus: Zeus, Hades, Athena, Hephaestus, and Aphrodite_

"Smart move, owl head!" yelled Hades, "You said that crossing the fiery river wouldn't hurt us!"

The five gods were now wading across the River Phlegethon. It was the first of four rivers they had to cross in order to reach the Brass Fortress. Hephaestus was farthest ahead in crossing the river with the other gods hot in pursuit.

"The River Phlegethon is the river of healing, uncle" replied Athena, keeping her cool (if that was at all possible in a river of fire), "it shouldn't do any damage to us."

Hephaestus nodded. "Athena is correct. The river is burning us, but it is healing us from those burns almost immediately."

"I feel like someone's repeatedly cutting me and stitching me. It hurts but it doesn't" said Aphrodite, confusing the others in the process.

"Well it's the stupidest thing I've since my brother had the bright idea of sending _me _to rule the Underworld," said Hades.

The gods finally rose out of the river and onto the black banks. Across the banks was another river: the River Cocytus.

"We are gods and we are having trouble navigating Tartarus. I can only imagine what Percy and Annabeth faced while they were down here," said Zeus grimly. The gods crossed the banks, on their way to the next river when suddenly there was silence.

"It is awfully quite. And we have seen no monsters, yet" said Hades whirling his head around.

Zeus and Athena slowly turned their heads around and stared at Hades. At the same time, they both said, "You idiot. You're not supposed to ask for monsters!"

Just then, there was a black whirlwind that surrounded the gods. Zeus armed himself with his master bolt, Athena took out her sword and shield, Hades took out his Stygian sword, Hephaestus took out his hammer, and Aphrodite took out her dagger.

The whirlwind started to slow down and two monsters appeared. They were both in attack positions. They looked like regular teenage girls and they wore torn cheerleader outfits.

"_Empousai" _said Athena.

The _empousai _both looked amused. Then their eyes turned red and their hair rose and burst into flames.

"Ah, the Olympians" said the first empousa. Lord Ares has put a high bounty on your capture. Allow us to introduce ourselves. I'm Kelli. This is Serephone-" Kelli was caught surprised when she saw her sister. A black sword was impaled into Serephone's stomach. She looked at her sister and screamed as she exploded into thousands of pieces in a blinding light.

Hades appeared with his black sword in hand. He pointed to his head as he looked at Kelli's shocked face.

"Helm of Darkness, allows me to turn invisible. You monsters are getting very chatty these years," he said almost tauntingly. Then he lunged at Kelli but she appeared a few yards away with an evil grin on her face.

"You may be fast, god of the Underworld, but do not underestimate me like you did my sister. See, the four demigods on the quest in the surface world sent quite a few undead warriors back to Tartarus recently. They shall keep you well occupied." About thirty pairs of skeleton hands shot out of the black soil around the gods. The hands pulled the bodies of zombies and ancient fighters who all snarled at the gods.

"ATTACK!" cried Kelli as she sped towards Hades.

The skeletons all charges at the gods. Zeus rose and hovered in the air. Then he shot towards the crowd of charging dead people and started incinerating them with his master bolt. Athena expertly used her sword and shield and chopped up about half a dozen monsters in a few seconds. Hephaestus was running through the ranks of the skeletal troops and just pounded at the monsters, dropping little bombs along the way. Aphrodite was being trapped by two skeleton warriors from the Civil War. She narrowed her eyes and with swift moves she kicked the one behind her and jumped at the one in front of her. Then she stabbed at his skull repeatedly.

"Take that! That was for Piper!" Aphrodite yelled.

Zeus zapped at a soldier that was grabbing at his leg. "Nico must've done a great job if we have to fight this many fallen soldiers."

"He makes me proud," said Hades as he slashed at Kelli. She kept hissing and her talons collided with Hades's sword.

"We need to keep moving! But these dead warriors keep coming," yelled Athena as she took down another skeleton.

"Allow us" said a voice in the distance. The gods whirled around and a volley of silver arrows flew over their heads. The airs hit the about a dozen monsters and they all exploded. A tall figure in the distance rampaged in to the troops and started taking them out with bombs and his fist. Another came at a soldier and killed him with a dagger similar to Aphrodite's and another figure took out a dozen soldiers with his sword with expert moves. Kelli was awestruck and Hades took this chance to slice her in half. Kelli looked straight at one of the mystery heroes and shouted "TRAITOR!" as she exploded in to a billion pieces.

The four mystery heroes walked towards the gods as a group. Zeus almost dropped his master bolt and Hades actually dropped his sword.

"I'd say that went pretty well" said a boy with a scar across his face and sandy hair.

"YOU!" said the gods harmoniously.

The boy raised his hands, "Whoa, hold your bazookas! We're here to help!"

Athena lowered her sword and nodded her head. "The prophecy…It said that we would need the help of the damned and the dead…"

The boy arched his eyebrows and looked confused, "I dunno about a prophecy but we can help your quest, or whatever it is you're doing here." He gestured towards the three dead demigods standing beside him.

Standing in front of the gods valiantly were Luke Castellan, Bianca di Angelo, Charles Beckendorf, and Silena Beauregard.

Ω

_Jumping into the Mississippi River: Percy, Thalia, Nico, and Clarisse_

As the four of us jumped into the river, I felt everything go into slow-motion. There were explosions behind us and zombies with swords that were about to skewer us. My day so far had been an action-horror-thriller movie. All of us screamed like girls until we finally hit the water with a large splash. The water was dirty, like last time. I saw a lighter at the bottom that brought back some memories. It was the same lighter I had seen and used the first time I had jumped into this river six years ago.

We all let go of each other's hands and Thalia felt herself.

"We aren't even wet!" she exclaimed. She laughed a little and swam around us. Then a small projectile shot from above and almost hit Thalia. As it hit the bottom of the river, it exploded and the shockwave pushed as back a little.

"This is great Percy! We're underwater in your safe little bubble, but we have about a dozen monsters with rocket launchers positioned right above us!" Clarisse barked.

"Shut up Clarisse! I usually don't take people with me underwater. The last time I made a bubble that wasn't just for me was when Annabeth and I were at the bottom of the lake at camp…" I said.

"So is there a plan in this somewhere?!" asked Nico.

I nodded. A can of Greek fire sank about a two yards away from us and exploded in a blinding light.

"Yeah, I have a plan. My dad gave me this necklace when I met up with him before I got to camp," I said as I pointed at the blue leather on my neck. "He kinda did this cool trick and pulled me from the lake near camp all the way to some part of the Atlantic Ocean. I think I can do the same thing with the help of this."

"So it's like shadow-travel, but with water?" Thalia asked.

"Yeah," I said, "I think I can take us from here and pop us out in some other body of water. I'll try to head west, but I don't know if I can take us all the way to the beach in Los Angeles."

"That's alright, just take us away from here!" said Nico.

We grabbed each other's hands and I focused hard. Then my eyes opened and my necklace glowed bright. The water in front of us sparkled like stars and we shot forward fast…extremely fast. It reminded me of the times when Han Solo and Chewie jump into hyperspace in Star Wars. We gripped each other's hands very tightly and it felt we were in a very big, very long, very FAST water slide. There were sudden turns and falls when we would all scream. My entire body felt like it was water. So in other words, I enjoyed it a LOT. I couldn't say the same for the others.

After a few minutes my head started hurting and my arms and legs were getting tired. We slowed down and our bodies felt solid again. The water around me felt different and I shot us upward.

Our heads popped out of a lake in the middle of a large forest. I could see a sign that said WELCOME TO LAKE MEAD NATIONAL RECREATION AREA, ARIZONA.

"Yes! Yes! Whoohoo! Oh yeah!" I yelled like this for about five minutes. I was overjoyed. I had pulled us through water over four states. We were extremely close to Los Angeles. The four of us swam to shore. And then I realized that we would have to get out of this forest first.

"Lake Mead…Lake Mead…" whispered Nico as he paced back and forth. Thalia, Clarisse and I were exhausted so we just laid there, our arms spread out, in the middle of a forest as Nico walked around.

"Aha! I knew I remembered the name!" he said. He turned around, "Lake Mead, Arizona is right next to Las Vegas!"

"Finally, a city I've heard of!" said Clarisse, "Do you have enough juice to do your death magic and take us there?"

"I thought you didn't like shadow travel" Nico said.

"Yeah, I hate it. But I hate Percy's water mess even more!"

Nico nodded. I got up and Nico went over to the water and shot a ball of dark energy into the lake. Then he looked at me gestured "After you."

I went over to the water and dove into the black hole he had just created. I had only blinked once when I was standing on a sidewalk with people walking towards me and past me. There was a road next to us busy with traffic. Tall palm trees lined the middle of the road. Enormous buildings with the shiny words HOTEL and CASINO were in front of me and I could see a replica of the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty in the distance. Girls were walking in groups with their phones, taking selfies and looked pretty drunk. I was on the Strip at Las Vegas again. Clarisse, Thalia, and Nico popped next to me and the girls gasped.

"OH…MY…GODS…" said Thalia.

"After all of this is over, we're coming back here" said Clarisse, her mouth open and head whirling 360 degrees. Then my heart skipped a beat as I sniffed something very familiar. Nico smelled it too and he looked paler than usual.

"Mmm…what is that smell? Is that lily?" asked Thalia

I shook my head. "It's lotus." I turned around and looked straight up. We were standing right in front of the LOTUS HOTEL AND CASINO.

"Crap" said Nico.

"You can say that again," I said.

"Crap. Crap…Crap."


	10. We Stumble Across Some Old Enemies

_The Strip, Las Vegas: Percy, Thalia, Nico and Clarisse_

"You had to take us here?" I asked Nico.

"No…I guess it's just the only place I remembered from Vegas so I subconsciously brought us here…" he said.

"Wait, you guys have been here?" Clarisse asked.

I nodded. "On my first quest six years ago, Annabeth, Grover, and I got held up here. If you enter the casino, you won't ever want to leave and time accelerates faster."

"So we're not going in there to freshen up?" asked Thalia, sounding disappointed.

"Oh, we're getting as far away from here as we can!" said Nico already walking away from the hotel. "I had been trapped here for seventy years before I got back out again."

"Yeah, guys it's really not a great idea to stay here. That hotel over there looks very Greekish, Caesar's Palace. We'll go there, freshen up, and think of a plan to get to Los Angeles by tonight. It's only a four hour drive." I said.

We all started walking towards Caesar's Palace when I heard Nico and Thalia gasp behind me. Clarisse and I whirled around to see Nico and Thalia in headlocks with two people pointing guns at their heads.

"Hands up, pea brains. You draw your swords and a bullet goes through each of their heads" said the guy who had a gun pointed at Thalia.

"You heard my brother. Come towards us slowly" said the other shooter.

One of the boys looked like a member of a biker gang. He had on a pair of worn out jeans, a black shirt and leather jacket. He had a bandana on his head and a knife strapped in with his belt. His eyes were like fire and they made me want to scream with fear and horror. I quickly looked away from him because I knew who he was. Clarisse and I had stumbled upon him and his brother a few years ago. His brother looked the same except he was more buff and aggressive looking. He had scars on his face.

"Phobos and Deimos!" said Clarisse angrily.

"Hello sister. Now get over here before I shoot" said Phobos.

"You too, Jackson!" said Deimos.

Clarisse and I slowly walked over to them. I was trying to think of a plan to get out of this. I knew that they sucked at swordplay, which was probably the reason that they decided to use guns. They had obviously gotten smarter.

"What are two minor gods doing here? Dirty work for daddy?" I asked teasingly.

"Minor gods?! Well these minor gods have you caught! Not walk into the hotel. Now!" screamed Deimos. He shoved Nico and Phobos shoved Thalia towards the entrance of the hotel.

"Oh, I almost forgot. Weapons please" said Phobos with his hands out. I reached in my pocket with a sigh and took out Riptide and Clarisse handed over her electric spear. I smiled a little and Clarisse knew what I was thinking. I had a plan.

Ω

The Lotus Hotel and Casino looked exactly like it had the days I had been here. Probably because barely anytime had passed in here. As we walked through the casino, I noticed that there were more people than before, more victims of the Lotus-Eaters, and that they didn't notice us at all. They were busy playing the arcade games and the slots with the lemons thing. Ahead was a water slide and amusement park rides. People were screaming with joy and vomiting from all the drinks they had. It was paradise, but not a paradise I wanted to spend eternity in.

Phobos and Deimos put their guns in their jackets but still shoved us towards the bar. Phobos grabbed a tray of something from a passing waiter.

"Sit" said Deimos. The four of us picked a stool and sat on it. Phobos took the platter and dropped it on the bar counter.

"Eat it" said Phobos. The tray was piled with lotuses. I remembered them from my last visit. The Lotus-Eaters would pass them out for "free" and the lotuses would make you want to stay here forever. Before I could stop them, Thalia and Nico grabbed a lotus and ate them. I stared at them with my jaw dropped. When the gorgons had offered the wieners, they knew not to eat them, but when these guys offered them a freaking flower, they don't hesitate.

"Hey, Percy, I kinda like it here. We should stay for a while" said Thalia. She was talking like she high on something and Nico started nodding like a bobble-head.

"Yeah, forgot about Hazel and Annabeth and the others. Let's stay here" he said.

I took a lotus and put it in my mouth. But instead of swallowing it, I spit it out onto Deimos's face.

He grew angry and the fire in his eyes grew brighter. "Idiot demigod! Why challenge us when you knew you can't beat two gods unarmed."

"Or can we?" I asked.

There was a silence and then Deimos spoke up. "Okay, now what the hell is that supposed to mean?"

Clarisse slid off of her stool and started walking around her brothers.

"Well first of all, you two are stupid. Obviously our father didn't teach you anything. Even I am more prepared than you are. And I'm just a stupid demigod. Second, you took Percy's sword. No one can take Percy's pen."

Phobos chuckled and reached into his jacket. "What? You mean this pen!" Then he frowned. He reached into his jacket some more.

I reached into my pocket and took out Riptide. I clicked its top and it grew into my sword.

"It's enchanted you moron." I said. Then I lunged at Phobos who yelled with pain as a struck his shoulder. Phobos dropped Clarisse's electric spear and she darted towards it with incredible speed. She took the spear and hurled it towards a surprised Deimos. It impaled his shoulder and electrocuted him with electricity given to her from Zeus himself.

Both of their shoulders dripped with golden ichor, the blood of the gods, and were incapacitated for the moment. I remembered that the only thing that snapped Annabeth out of the lotus enchantment: her fear. I had screamed the word 'spider' and the enchantment had been broken. I sprinted towards Thalia who had a big smile on her face.

"Hey, Percy, you want to eat a lotus?" she had a bright pink flower in her outstretched hand.

"Thalia, you're flying." I said.

"I'm what?" she said, confused.

"You're flying really high. The clouds are beneath you." I said more forcefully.

"Percy…I'm flying! Help me I'm falling!" Thalia started screaming and then she stopped and blinked. The lotus dropped from her hand. She reached to her quiver and took out a silver arrow and shot it with her bow behind me. I turned around to see Deimos with an arrow in his hand.

"Puny daughter of Zeus! An arrow can't stop me!" he yelled in rage.

"Wait for it…" Thalia said. There was a silence and then the arrow exploded in Deimos's hand with a deafening BOOM.

"AGGGH!" he screamed.

Clarisse was slashing at Phobos with her spear and he had his own sword out. They fought for a while, her spear and his sword clashing. The she took the butt of her spear and hit him in the face. Phobos's hands went up to his forehead and Clarisse kicked him towards Nico. She picked him up by his neck and screamed, "Look at him!"

Phobos looked at Nico and Nico stared into his fiery eyes. Phobos was the god of fear and horror and if anyone looked at him directly, their mind would start filling up with fearful thoughts. I had learned the hard way. Nico started screaming and then punched Phobos in the face.

"Who? What? Where? When? Why?" he screamed.

"Us. Caught. Lotus Hotel. Leaving. Now!" said Thalia, already sprinting towards the exit.

As we reached the doors of the hotel, I could see that in the twenty minutes we had been in here, it was already evening. We burst out of the doors and looked at the strip.

"Where do we go?!" Clarisse asked.

I scanned the Strip. There was a street a few blocks away from us, near the end of the Strip. A building stuck out to me. It had the word **amazon, LAS VEGAS** on it in huge black letters.

"I think I have a plan to get us to Los Angeles quickly. Let's go." I ran towards the **amazon **building with the three of them close behind me. It was time to ask a favor from the Queen of the Amazons.

_Tartarus: Zeus, Hades, Athena, Hephaestus, Aphrodite, Luke, Silena, Bianca, and Charles_

"What are _you_ doing here!?" asked Zeus angrily.

"Hello? I was sent to Tartarus for my sins against Olympus. Even though I was never really in control of my body since the first year I met Percy Jackson" said Luke very casually like he didn't mind being asked such a hurtful question.

"Silena!" squealed Aphrodite. She rushed over to her daughter and gave her a tight hug.

"Hi mother. I hear you're on a quest. That armor I so cute" said Silena. She still had on the same shirt and pants she had worn the day she had died during the Battle of the Drakon.

"Charles," Hephaestus said as he ruffled his son's hair, "I thought you were going to try for rebirth?"

"I was, until I saw that Silena had died. We were in love, and if I tried rebirth, I might've never seen her again" Beckendorf said.

"Hi dad" said Bianca quietly. Hades walked over to her.

"Hello, Bianca. How are you?" he asked.

"Dead… but that's alright. Nico turned out to be a great warrior. I'm very proud that he was my brother" she said. Hades nodded.

"So, since your prophecy says that we are supposed to help you, tell us more about what we're up against" Luke asked.

"Ares has kidnapped Annabeth along with five demigods you don't know. Jason Grace, the Roman brother of Thalia, Piper McLean, Leo Valdez, Frank Zhang, and Hazel Levesque. He has already harmed Annabeth." Athena said quietly.

Luke looked surprised. "Oh my…Annabeth is going to kill me. Even though I'm already dead…Thalia has a brother? And he's Roman?"

"A lot has transpired since you died, son of Hermes," said Zeus, "but now we need to save these demigods. We have reason to believe that they are in the Brass Fortress. You will assist us in breaking them free."

Luke, Beckendorf, Silena, and Bianca nodded.

Bianca pointed at the River Cocytus. "It is the next river you must cross. It is also known as the River of Lamentation. You must be careful not to touch the water, or you will be drowned in sorrow. The river also has a mind of its own and may attack you."

"She is correct. And we must hurry" said Hades.

The five gods and the four dead demigods sprinted across the black sand towards the black river. It had a strong smell of sulfur which they could smell from a distance and blood-red clouds hung over it.

"Ewww…it stinks extremely badly" said Silena with her fingers holding her nose.

"How will we cross it" asked Hephaestus as they approached the river.

"Please. I'm the Lord of the Underworld. I think I can try something" said Hades.

He closed his eyes and then raised his hands. He made a motion with them like he was breaking or ripping through something. The water made a moaning sound and stopped flowing. There was a gap in the river with water on both sides.

"Hurry! I won't be able to hold it much longer!"said Hades through clenched teeth. They all jumped in and sprinted across the mushy bottom of the river. The water on both sides was making noises like it didn't like being stopped. The gods and demigods climbed their way out of the river but Hades was still inside.

"Hurry!" exclaimed Zeus.

"He's faltering!" cried Bianca. She closed her eyes and tried to imitate her father's powers.

Hades started climbing up out of the river when the water started coming closer together. Bianca fell down and Luke went over to help her. The river came crashing in through the gap and started flowing again, with Hades still inside it.

"AGH! It's freezing!" yelled Hades.

Zeus knelt down on the banks and outstretched his hand. "Come on, brother, take my hand!"

"There's no point. We don't even know for sure if they are in the Brass Fortess! Ares wins!" screamed Hades miserably.

"That's the river speaking, father!" yelled Bianca. "You are the Lord of the Dead! You are more powerful here that any of the other gods! You will help find them and be a hero!"

Hades struggled to swim against the flow of the river but then he jumped towards Zeus's hand. Zeus pulled him out with all of his might. They both lay there, exhausted.

"You're getting heavy!" exclaimed Zeus.

"I can be any weight I want! I was just measuring you're strength, brother…Thanks" said Hades with a smile and a sigh.

"All right, that's enough of that mushy stuff," said Luke coming over to the gods. "We need to go save Annabeth and the others."

"The next river is the River Styx…finally, we cannot bathe in it either…unless anyone here wants the curse of Achilles," said Beckendorf.

"Been there, done that…not very fun," said Luke.

"Then we must call Charon," said Hades. He put his fingers to his mouth and whistled. His whistle rang throughout Tartarus. After a few moments, the gods and demigods could see a hooded figure with an oar, rowing towards them. He looked like the ghoul costume one might find at a Party City during Halloween. In his hood though was only a skull.

"What am I doing here, Lord Hades? I'm only the ferryman in the part of the Styx in the Underworld. This is not the Underworld" said Charon, looking annoyed (if skulls could look annoyed).

"What? Charon what do you want from me? I even gave you a raise after that boy Jackson so kindly asked me to."

"I want you to fix this retched boat! Styx water leaking through this thing willy nilly…"

Hades sighed. "Fine. I'll do that. Anything else?"

Charon looked surprised. "Seriously? Anything else?"

"No!" Hades screamed. He pointed to the other gods and the demigods. "Get in."

A depressed Charon rowed them across the Styx. The Brass Fortress was now in clear sight. It shined from the fire pits that surrounded it. Gleaming towers rose on all four of its sides. Charon stopped when they got to the other side and the nine of them got out. Charon rowed furiously back to the Underworld before Hades had another chance to yell at him.

"We're almost there. Just one more river…" said Aphrodite.

"The River Lethe" said Athena.

"It was where Nico and I were dumped to erase our memories after our mom died…" said Bianca.

"Yes, well it was for your own safety. Its effects are temporary though. Nico does remember parts of his past now. But, it you bathe in the Lethe and are reborn, its effects are permanent."

"That's great but we should hurry," said Luke impatiently.

"Agreed," said Hephaestus and they all marched towards the Lethe, the Brass Fortress looming in the distance.

*****HI PEOPLE THAT READ MY FANFICTIONS! THE NEXT CHAPTER IS WHEN ALL OF THE GOOD STUFF HAPPENS. THE GODS RAID THE BRASS FORTRESS AND PERCY FINALLY BATTLES ARES. BUT AFTER THAT IS OVER, THE BAD STUFF DOESN'T STOP! I'M PLANNING ON WRITING ANOTHER FANFICTION BOOK INVOLVING THE GODDESS HESTIA AND SOMETHING THAT PERCT GAVE TO HER FOR PROTECTION…IT'LL BE CALLED:**

**_PERCY JACKSON AND THE ONLY HOPE_**

**OR ATLEAST THAT'S WHAT I HAVE SO FAR, I MIGHT CHANGE IT…ANYWAYS, THANKS FOR READING AND REVIEWING. TELL OTHER PEOPLE ABOUT MY BOOKS AND GOODBYE!**


	11. Finale Part I: The Beginning of the End

_Amazon, Las Vegas: Percy, Thalia, Nico, and Clarisse_

It was almost nightfall. If we didn't arrive at the beach in Los Angeles, Ares would do something bad to another camper. I had already figured out a way to get us there but the thought of fighting Ares again was making me feel weird. I had butterflies. What if we couldn't defeat him? What if the gods never find Annabeth? All of these thoughts were depressing me as the four of us sprinted towards a tall building.

"Percy?" said Thalia, panting, "do you plan on shipping us to L.A.?"

"Yeah, what are we doing in front of an Amazon building," asked Clarisse, "I don't even use Amazon!"

"It's kind of a long story but was founded by the original Amazons of Greece," I said as I walked up a small flight of concrete stairs toward glass double doors. "Last year we asked for their Queen's help to stop the war between the camps. They also deliver stuff to the gods, monsters, you name it. They have some magical things back there…"

"Do you think that she'll just give us transportation without, like, paying for it or anything?" Nico asked.

I opened the doors and gestured for them to enter. "I'm not sure… but we have no choice but to try.

When we walked in it looked like we had entered a regular office building. There were women walking around with clipboards and other women darting across the room to a desk. There was a women tapping her feet furiously as she was waiting for a printer and another one who was yelling into her cell phone. One thing stuck out immediately: they were all females.

I led the other three to the other end of the lobby where there was a receptionist at the desk who was click-clacking at a keyboard.

"Um, hi, I'd like an audience with-" I started.

"One minute, ma'am!" she yelled without looking away from her screen.

I could hear Thalia and Nico snicker and Clarisse snorted really loudly.

"She called you ma'am…" whispered Clarisse and started giggling again.

I ignored them and then I realized that the receptionist looked extremely familiar. She had this distinct auburn hair that was hard to forget.

"Kinzie?!" I said, surprised and a little louder than I had wanted to.

The receptionist looked up, "Oh, Perseus Jackson! I never thought I'd see you again! We usually don't have a lot of men in this part of the complex. Sorry about that." She got up out of her chair and came around towards me.

"What are you doing away from the Amazon base up in Seattle?" I asked.

"Ohhh, we move around. Besides, all Amazon buildings are connected to the base! How can I help you all today?" she said.

"Oh yeah, this is Thalia, Clarisse, and Nico. We want an audience with Queen Hylla."

"Alright, well her schedule is pretty jam-packed this month, but I think I can manage to fit you four in and…" she said as she looked at her tablet, "I'll move these hundred shipments to the next day! Ever since we started this whole Amazon Prime business, I've had to do even more work! Follow me!"

We all followed her away from the busy lobby and down a hall. There was a huge door at the end of the hall. It looked like it was made of bronze and it had intricate Amazonian designs engraved on it. There were two guards in tunics and breastplates. They each had a sword and shield in hand and their helmets had little gold wings sprouting from the sides.

"Lulu! Doris!' I said as I waved to the two guards. I remembered them from my last visit to the Amazons.

They waved their swords and smiled and Kinzie stopped. "This is as far as I can go! I'm very busy! Lulu and Doris will take you to Queen Hylla!" She ran back towards the lobby with her tablet in hand.

Lulu and Doris both opened the big bronze door together. It looked like it took a lot of strength. When the doors opened, all of us wowed.

"Dang…" said Nico.

"That is probably the biggest conveyor belt I have ever seen…" said Thalia.

"Those are a LOT of boxes" exclaimed Clarisse.

"Welcome to the Amazon base in Seattle, guys" I said.

"Wait, what? Right now we're in Las Vegas, but if we step through those doors, we're in Seattle, Washington?!" Nico asked. He sounded fascinated.

"Yes, try to keep up. Now let's go!" I jogged towards the door and the other's followed me. Lulu and Doris came in and shut the door behind us.

There were hundreds of boxes zipping across the warehouse at incredible speed. The entire compound was about the size of twenty football fields. Dozens of men in orange jumpsuits were piling boxes, loading trucks, and taping stuff. "Queen Hylla is over there" said Lulu pointing across the warehouse. I nodded and walked over.

"Queen Hylla?" Thalia said as we came up behind her.

"One second, sir" she said without turning around. "Okay, you take care of these five trucks, they have to be out of here in thirty seconds or we they won't be delivered in time…"

This time I laughed. As I did, Hylla turned around.

"I knew I recognized that laugh. Percy Jackson, what are you doing here?" asked Hylla. She was in a white tunic with a golden breastplate and a golden winged helmet. The Belt of Hippolyta shined on her waist.

"You know, you called me a sir" said Thalia, looking a little annoyed.

"Oh, yes, sorry about that. We don't usually have many women in the working area, besides me" she said apologetically.

"I'm here because I need your help. Ares has done something horrible to our Greek and Roman friends. He's kidnapped them and is gonna hurt them really badly if the four of us don't get to Los Angeles tonight."

Hylla frowned. "Lord Ares? Many of the Amazons worship him, along with other war deities such as Lady Athena and my mother, Bellona. We must keep this quiet around here…But I think I can assist you."

She led us towards another part of the compound and noticed that the items surrounding as were getting a little weird. There were stacks of cans of Greek fire, empty chariots, and scrolls. Above us I could see that there were pegasi in cages hanging from the ceiling. They lowered as we approached and Hylla pointed at them.

"Here, these pegasi should take you to Los Angeles in no time. But I'm afraid that I cannot just give them to you. The Amazons need a tribute or token in exchange" she said.

I sighed. "I knew it" said Nico.

"I don't think we even have anything to give!" said Thalia.

"I think I have something, Queen Hylla," said Clarisse. She was taking her electric spear off of her back.

"Clarisse…" I started.

"Shut up Jackson," she said sternly. Then she walked up to Hylla. "I've been having a crisis of faith in my father lately. Zeus gave this to him and he gifted it to me, but every time I saw it these past few days, I saw the faces of my seized friends. So I don't want it anymore…" She handed it over to Hylla and she took it.

"I accept your offer," she said, "but you have Ares as your father. You are very strong and firm. You would make a great Amazon warrior."

"Thanks, but no thanks," Clarisse said.

I nodded at Clarisse and then walked up to the four pegasi that had just lowered from the ceiling. "Let's do this thing."

Ω

"I'm gonna puke again," said Thalia as she bent over the side of her flying pegasus for the third time. We were at the same altitude as a plane and were flying about three times faster. Even I felt sick. We had been flying for about ten minutes. The wind was intense and my face was freezing cold but all I could think about was the upcoming battle. Nico's yelling snapped me out of my trance.

"Percy! We have company!" he yelled from his pegasus. It was hard to hear him even when he was screaming because of the wind but he pointed back and I noticed the dark black cloud behind us. Thunder boomed from inside of it and then the cloud burst into about a dozen separate ones, each with a dark face and upper body.

"_Anemoi Thuellai!" _I screamed.

"Storm spirits? Wow my dad really hates you guys!" Clarisse shouted.

"Percy and I will handle it! You two pay attention to where we're going!" screamed Thalia. She nodded at me and I understood what to do. I turned around on my pegasus and outstretched my arms. The clouds beneath as started rising and I willed them to go back towards the storm spirits. Then I condensed them and six of the mini black clouds were caught inside a massive ball of water. They instantly dissipated into the water and I dropped the ball of water. The four of us saw it fall and fall and fall, growing smaller until it went through the clouds underneath us.

"I wonder where Thalia's vomit and my rain ball ended up falling!" I yelled.

"That would be funny to me on a normal day but these freaking spirits won't vaporize!" Thalia screamed.

The other six spirits looked like they were doing the hokey pokey. They were wiggling and then disappearing but Thalia's control on them wasn't enough.

"Thalia, focus harder!" Nico yelled.

"I think I'm gonna puke again!" she said but then her eyes turned white. The clouds underneath us boomed and lightning shot up and made the storm spirits disappear.

"We're approaching Santa Monica beach now!" yelled Clarisse.

We started descending through the clouds. The end was near…not to sound too apocalyptic. I meant the end of Ares's whole brouhaha was ending...I probably didn't use brouhaha correctly…whatever.

Ω

_The Brass Fortress: Zeus, Hades, Athena, Hephaestus, Aphrodite, Luke, Bianca, Beckendorf, Silena_

"We are never doing that again," said Hades as the gods and demigods strode away from the River Lethe and towards the Brass Fortress. They had just crossed the last river.

"Agreed," said Luke, who was sighing with exhaustion. "I've been in Tartarus longer that you all have and have never done this much work."

"Okay, let's review the prophecy," said Athena, "_The king of the gods, his brother, and children journey the realm of riches to its deepest depth."_

"Check," said Zeus.

"_They will face obstacles in search of their spawn and free them at their last breath," _said Hephaestus grimly.

"Not very comfortable with that one," said Aphrodite, "but we did face obstacles…freakin' rivers of hell…"

"_They will have to achieve this with the help of the damned and the dead, and then only will they achieve the rest," _said Hades, "Well we got helped from the damned, Luke…"

"Hey!" Luke yelled in protest.

"…and the dead were the other three. So I'd say we're doing great!" said Hades.

They hiked up a black hill. The Brass Fortress was gleaming bright. In silence, they all ran down the hill towards its gates. Zeus and Hades grabbed at the doors and with all of their strength, they pulled the doors apart, only to want to shut them again.

Inside the first level of the Brass Fortress, was an army waiting for their arrival.

"Are those the same…" started Silena.

"Yes," said Athena," these are the fallen monsters from the Battle of Manhattan."

Luke unsheathed his sword, Backbiter. "It's showtime."

The demigods charged in first with their weapons in hand. Luke slashed away with his sword at some Scythian Dracnae. Some telkhines darted towards him and they over powered him. Bianca shot a wave of different typed of arrows into the crowd ahead. One arrow exploded, instantly destroying a group of the dead soldiers, another arrow burst into a net, capturing a few empousai. Beckendorf and Silena converged together and he tossed her into the air. As she shot back down, she expertly slashed her dagger and vaporized some hellhounds. The gods were evidently impressed. They grew in size and waded into battle. Zeus melted a Laistrygonian giant with his master bolt and Hades turned invisible and started annihilating the other monsters.

"Children!" yelled Hephaestus, "go to the upper floor and free the campers! We can definitely handle the situation here!"

"You got it, dad!" yelled Beckendorf. He ran through the army and cleared a path for the other three. They all sprinted towards a flight of brass stairs.

Ω

_Inside the Cell: Annabeth, Jason, Piper, Hazel, Frank, and Leo_

Everyone was panting, sighing, and moaning. Most of us had excessively bled already. We were trying hard to hang onto our lives but we I felt that death was very near. I was going in and out of consciousness and I thought that I wouldn't make it by the end of the day.

Ares opened the cell door and all of us looked at Jason. He looked like he had never been more terrified in his life.

"Don't do it!" yelled Piper weakly. Ares just snickered as he closed the cell and walked towards Jason with his sword. Then he stopped in his tracks.

"Jackson approaches Santa Monica. My time has come. Today's your lucky day, son of Jupiter."

Ares disappeared into smoke and then I heard loud banging and yelling underneath us.

"What was that?" Leo said.

"I think there are people beneath us!" said Hazel excitedly.

"Someone help us!" yelled Frank as loud as he could. We all joined him and started screaming for help. A few minutes later I heard a familiar voice, a voice that made my heart skip a beat.

"They're that way!" yelled the voice from a distance.

Four demigods approached the cell door and we all just looked at each other.

"Oh…my…gods…Luke? Bianca? Beckendorf? Silena?" I said, tears rushing down my face. I had never been so excited to see him in my life.

"Annabeth? Oh my…you're arm!" Luke said, shocked.

"Whoa, you're Charles Beckendorf!" squealed Leo with excitement.

"Yeah, how do you know me?" Beckendorf said, a little creeped out.

Piper looked excited too. "You're the legendary Silena of the Aphrodite Cabin!"

"Legendary?" said Silena in a confused tone.

"Will someone bust us out of here!" yelled Jason.

"Right," said Bianca, pulling an arrow out of her quiver. "Stand clear from the door, guys."

We all leaned away and used our arms to protect us…well I used my_ arm_. Bianca stuck the arrow in the ground next to the cell door and in a few seconds, there was a small BOOM!

I coughed a little and Beckendorf came in and pulled hard at my gold chains. His biceps bulged and I could see his veins. He was definitely using all the might he had. The chains popped out from the wall and I could stand again. Luke came towards me and I put my arm around his shoulder.

"I can't believe it's you…" I said to him. He just smiled at me.

"I'm sorry for everything that I did" he said. We walked out together and Beckendorf worked on freeing the other campers. I could see a flight of stairs going down but then I saw my mom.

"Mother!" I took my arm off of his shoulder and ran to her. The room was empty now but it was evident that there had been a massive fight here.

"Annabeth! Oh, Zeus, you're arm!" she exclaimed as she hugged me. She turned around and called Hephaestus over and he nodded. Hephaestus came over to my arm and took his hammer out.

"Now, this arm cannot heal, but I can forge you a new one" he gently tapped my bandaged side and I felt a strange sensation throughout my entire body. Wires were sprouting out of my side and kept extending. Metal coatings started forming out of nowhere until I was staring down at my hands. One of them was normal, the other one was made of metal.

"I…you…how?" I began sputtering but then I nodded at Hephaestus. "Thank you, Lord Hephaestus."

"Dad!" said Leo as he ran down the stairs.

"Leo!" Hephaestus with a smile on his face. Aphrodite followed him to his son, where she saw her own daughter and went over to greet her. Jason slightly hovered over to Zeus and Hazel darted towards Hades. Frank just stood there.

"We have to go to Los Angeles, right now. Ares is going to fight Percy!" he said.

"Agreed. But if you are up for it, think that you can fight alongside him. Athena's eyes glowed as she raised her hands. Instantly, the demigods' clothes knit together, their wounds healed and breastplates appeared on their chests. Even the dead heroes had armor on.

"I think that you can return to the surface as ghosts for this battle, but then you all must return to the Underworld."

"But how do we get out of here?" asked Luke.

"I think my wife can help with that" said Hades. "Persephone is known for getting people out of the Underworld with her stupid little pearls."

Ω

**END OF THE FINALE: PART ONE**


	12. The Beginning of Something New

_Santa Monica, California: EVERYONE_

Thalia, Nico, Clarisse and I circled around and slowly descended with our pegasi. It was pretty dark and a full moon was shining high in the sky. The waves were crashing along the coast and everything looked like it had six years ago. When we smoothly landed in the sand, we all jumped off of the pegasi and they flew back up, probably heading back to the Amazons in Seattle.

"We're here Ares! Come out and fight us, you monster!" I yelled into night.

Just then there was a blinding light and I yelled at my team. "He's coming in his true godly form, close your eyes!"

There was a supernova of energy and Ares appeared in his Ancient Greek battle armor. He had on an orange tunic with a golden breastplate and wooden sandals. He wore a helmet with a red plume and had a ten-foot long sword in his hand and he stood about twenty five feet tall himself. At his feet were the two gorgons, Euryale and Stheno, undead soldiers, storm spirits, Dracnae, and telkhines, all equipped with armor and weapons. There were about a total of eighty troops in all.

"All in good time, Percy Jackson," Ares said in a loud booming voice. "If my timing's correct, the beach is about to get even more crowded right about…now."

In the ocean I could see a strange light. Then I could see about fifteen large bubbles shoot out from the water and float towards the shore. They flew over Ares and his troops and touched down behind me. They bubbles' walls started to degenerate and fifteen figures stepped out. I was speechless. Not only I, but Nico, Thalia, and Clarisse had their jaws dropping too. I could feel them picking up their jaws and dusting them off.

Annabeth got out of her bubble with armor that I remembered from our first Capture the Flag game together. She looked around and as soon as she saw me, she ran toward me. I ran toward her and…we bonked our heads together. Yeah…not one of my smoothest moments. We just sat there in the sand and held our hands and laughed for a little bit. Then she kissed me and stood back up.

"How were things up here?" she said as she helped me get up.

"Oh, it was great! How was your second trip to…oh my gods I forgot about your arm" I said as I grabbed for her arm. It was made of pure bronze.

"Hephaestus forged it for me. I actually think it's…"

"Awesome. It's totally amazing." I said, even though this new addition to her body made me even more scared of making my girlfriend angry.

Thalia rushed over to Jason and they hugged for about forever. Nico just stood there as he saw someone he never thought he'd see again. Bianca di Angelo hovered towards her brother and they both started tearing up.

"I…missed you so much," Nico said his voice breaking.

"So did I…our father and I are very proud of you, Nico," Bianca said.

Thalia left her brother and slowly walked over to the ghost of Luke Castellan. He just smiled and didn't say anything. Then Thalia slapped him…or tried to. Her hand just went through him.

"That didn't hurt. I can be intangible if I want to" he said.

"I'm sorry, I…you're here…" Thalia said. Then she slapped him again.

"That didn't hurt either," he said.

"You're not a power crazy titan, right?" Thalia asked. Luke nodded and then stepped closer to her. Thalia slapped him again.

"Okay, why are you slapping the guy that-"

"I'm sorry," Thalia said, "but I've sworn off boys for eternity."

"Just a hug then" Luke said as he hugged Thalia.

I went over to Beckendorf, Silena, Leo, Frank, and Hazel.

"Are you guys alright? I now that's a incredibly stupid question, but-"

"Yeah, Percy. It's going to a LOT more than Tartarus to kill the Leo…that didn't make sense," said Leo. Hazel and Frank nodded that they were okay with a smile.

Then I turned over to Beckendorf and Silena's ghosts. "I'm sorry that the both of you had to die."

"It was our decisions, Percy. And we're alright with them" said Beckendorf.

"ENOUGH!" boomed Ares. The gods, the ghosts, and the demigods all stopped talking and looked up at Ares. There smiles vanished and their serious faces turned on. "I HAVE BEEN STANDING HERE WAITING LONG ENOUGH!"

"Ares! Why did you decide to do this now! We just won a war against the giants and Gaea. Why can't you leave that battle from six years ago alone?!" I asked him.

"BECAUSE YOU'VE FOILED EVERYTHING, JACKSON!" he yelled furiously. "I suppose now that everyone is present, I should reveal my role in all of this. Six years ago, the titan lord Kronos affected me and that blasted boy, Luke Castellan. I secretly served him over the years, and knew that a war was bound to come. But you and your band of demigods defeated the freaking titans!" Ares paced the beach and his troops stared and us the whole time, ready to attack on his command.

"So I decided it was time to step up my game. I knew that you all could not defeat the giants and the primordial beings. It was time for me to awaken Gaea. But my mother, Hera, discovered what I was doing. Gaea was awakened enough to trap her, but not before she could swap Jason Grace and Percy Jackson. Even after my mother was freed, she decided not to tell anyone that it was me who started it all. I am one of her only sons, and revealing my plans would send me to Tartarus."

"Then, the gods were incapacitated; their Roman and Greek sides fought each other. I didn't know this would happen, but it would make no one suspect me. But that idiot Mars was in my head. He was more 'rational' and he could hear my thoughts. He knew what his Greek side had done, so he appeared in front of his son, Frank Zhang, and gave him his blessing, hoping to help the side of the demigods. After you defeated Gaea, I decided it was time that I finally ended your meddling, and kill you were you first humiliated me."

All of us let those facts sink in. I couldn't believe that all the crap in my life had happened because of Ares. Anger boiled up inside of me and the other demigods, and as one, we charged into battle, to destroy that stupid monster and put him in chains.

All ten demigods and four ghosts yelled loudly as we charged. Not a single monster would survive our fury. Annabeth and I fought side by side and decapitated skeletons with our swords. We had always worked best together. Hazel lifted sand from underground and through mini sandstorms in the ways of the telkhines. Thalia and Bianca fought together once again and shot arrows charged with Greek fire into the ranks of the Dracnae. Jason flew over the troops with Piper and they both chopped away at the monsters. Clarisse disassembled about a dozen skeletons using hand to hand combat and Nico popped in and out of black holes, confusing the monsters and sending them to the Underworld. Beckendorf charged throughout the army and rearranged some faces with his hammer and Silena fought beside him unlike any daughter of Aphrodite I had ever seen. Luke and his sword, Backbiter, clashed with the gorgons' talons and he skewered both of them until they exploded into golden dust. Leo seemed to be having more fun than he should have. He laughed and hooted as he lighted up the night and blowtorched several telkhines. Frank grew in size and became really hairy. He was a seven foot tall gorilla and threw some Dracnae into the sea.

Then the gods decided to intervene.

"We can handle the monsters children," said Hades. Then he disappeared and reappeared somewhere else in the troops.

"He's right. Your battle is with Ares!" said Zeus as he incinerated a few monsters with his master bolt.

We all nodded and Ares readied himself. Jason flew up to Ares's shoulder and dropped Piper. With a yell she stabbed him with her dagger, Katoptris, and then slid down his arm. Ares roared and he shook Piper off of hm.

"Percy! Help me!" she screamed. I urged for a pillar of water to sprout out underneath Piper and catch her. The water dropped her off in the sand.

Ares put his hand on his shoulder and golden ichor dripped down his side. Then he raised his sword and dropped it fast onto the beach. We all dodged him but Silena and Beckendorf saw an opportunity. They ran up his hands and his arms. Silena sliced at Ares and then jumped off. Beckendorf striked down with his hammer, probably breaking part of Ares's arm, but Ares picked him and throw him fifty feet away. Leo took out his own hammer from his tool belt and ran to Ares' feet, which were in the water. I controlled the water to grab his feet and not let him go while Leo banged at him and used his fire powers. Jason flew down to Bianca and picked her up. She shot a sonic arrow into his ear and a fart arrow up his nose. Ares bellowed and grabbed his ear in agony.

Behind Ares, I could see someone scaling up his back, but I couldn't make out who it was. The person had a dagger and was a girl. I looked for Annabeth and Piper but they were next to me.

"Percy! I'm using my sword, so I gave Clarisse my dagger! That's her!" Annabeth said.

With a frightening yell, Clarisse struck Annabeth's dagger in his back and held onto it. The dagger cut through his back and kept coming down. Ares screamed as gold ichor poured out of his back. He reached for the demigod on his back and grabbed them. Without checking who it was he crushed the camper with his fists and threw them onto the beach.

"NO! CLARISSE!" yelled Annabeth. She and Luke ran over to her body in the sand.

Ares looked surprised, and then the color drained from his face. "What? Clarisse…" He started stepping towards her, but Hazel pushed a sandstorm into him.

"Now!" I yelled at Frank. He understood. Frank ran like a cheetah towards Ares and then started growing. His hands morphed into his body and his skin became murky and scaly. He jumped into the body and rose as an enormous sea serpent. He wrapped himself around Ares's ankles and Jason and Thalia pushed him back with a blast of lightning and wind. Ares fell back, his entire body splashing into the water. I urged the water to hold him inside. There were large bubbles of air coming up and the water looked like a unicorn had peed in it because of all of the bloody ichor. There was a bright light inside of the water and Ares started to revert back to his regular-sized form.

Jason flew over to the light-headed god and picked him up. He carried him over to the gods, who were just finishing their own battle with the monsters. "Lord Vulcan!" he yelled as he dropped Ares.

"It's Hephaestus, kid" he said as Ares dropped in front of him. "Hello brother. Oh, I've wanted to put you in chains ever since you started going out with my wife, Aphrodite." Hephaestus pounded his hammer on Ares's wrists and ankles and golden shackles forms around them.

All of ran over to Clarisse, where Annabeth was sobbing next to Luke. She wouldn't stop crying. Clarisse's arms and legs looked broken and he bleeding from her mouth. She was having a hard time breathing.

"The prophecy…" she said weakly. "It said that an intruder would fall…I wasn't supposed to go on this quest. Stupid me...I…I hated him for what he did…" then she closed her eyes and stopped moving. All of us had tears running down our cheeks and the gods came over to us with Ares in chains. Ares just stood there, looking at his daughter. When Annabeth saw him, she punched him in the face and then came over to me. She hugged me and kept sobbing.

"She will be buried on Mount Olympus…" said Athena quietly.

"No, mom, I think we should bury her at Camp Half-Blood. Near Thalia's Pine…she would've liked that."

Athena nodded and everyone took a moment of silence as the sun rose again.

Ω

The next day, all of the gods except Ares came to Camp Half-Blood for Clarisse's funeral. Everyone seemed depressed and the Ares Cabin tried not to cry. Even the ghosts were present for the funeral because after it was over, they had to go back to Olympus to deal with some matters. He grave was at the bottom of Half-Blood Hill and her tombstone said:

CLARISSE LA RUE

1996 – 2014

A TRUE WARRIOR AND A TRUE FRIEND

After the funeral was over, the campers returned to their cabins for the reception and the gods took us all to Olympus. The throne room was repaired from the damage I had caused and Ares's throne was intact. Looking at it made me want to destroy it again, but I controlled myself. All of the gods were sitting in their thrones, including my father who looked at me proudly, but he also showed sympathy, like he knew I felt horrible about Clarisse's death.

The gods were now conversing about what to do with Luke Castellan. Then Zeus cleared his throat.

"Alright, time to take a vote. All in favor of ending Luke Castellan's sentence in Tartarus, and returning him to the Underworld, say I" Zeus said.

All of the gods said "I" together and so did all of the demigods. Luke sighed with relief and the gods laughed a little. Hermes looked delighted. But then I had an idea.

"I have a proposition," I said as I stepped forward. "When I was in New Rome, Camp Jupiter's deceased campers were allowed to stay there. I propose that the gods allow the ghosts of campers to reside in Camp Half-Blood, as mentors and teachers."

"He always asks too much, this boy," said Hades. "Claim your children at age thirteen, build cabins for minor gods, now send ghosts back to the camp…"

"Hmmm…" said Zeus. The gods started talking again. Hades stared at Nico and his sister standing together and something inside of him seemed to snap.

"Oh, fine. I second Percy Jackson's proposition" he said. I smiled at him…he frowned back, but at least he agreed.

"More campers? I definitely don't like that idea" said Dionysus.

"Why, Dionysus? It's not like they need food nor need to use the bathroom or anything. I support Percy" said Aphrodite.

"So do I" said Apollo.

"I don't think it's rational…but I can see that it might be the right thing to do. I favor Percy" said Athena.

"Fine," said Zeus. "All gods in favor of Mr. Jackson's proposition, say I"

Eight of the twelve gods present said "I". "It's settled then. The ghosts of the deceased campers will be sent to reside at Camp Half-Blood as mentors. Council meeting adjourned."

The gods started disappearing as the fourteen of us cheered. Nico and Bianca hugged each other and so did Luke and Thalia.

"Yippee. More paperwork for me," said Hades as he disappeared.

We started to head out of the throne room, everyone in an extremely good mood when the fire in the hearth started to roar. A goddess stepped out of the flames and looked straight at me. She had glowing, yellow eyes with smoke coming from them and a green hood.

"Lady Hestia?" I said. Then I turned around to the others. "You guys go ahead. I'll meet up with you guys in the lobby of the Empire State Building. They looked a little confused but eventually they all headed out."

"Perseus Jackson, there is a major problem."

"What's happened, Lady Hestia?"

"Do you remember the gift that you gave me after the Battle of Manhattan?" she asked.

I had to think a little but then I remembered. "Yeah…I gave you Pandora's box. Why, what's wrong?"

"Pandora's pithos," she corrected me, "and…it's been stolen."

Ω

**Hey people! My first FanFiction is over. I really hope that you guys enjoyed it. Tell your friends about it! It's going to be a while before I start writing my second book, but I can assure you that it will happen after the events of this book. Thanks for you're support!**

**-TushiSushi**


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